"And for Harry it'll be the chance to see more of his birthplace." "It'll be great to settle down in Perth for the run of the show," says Morrison. He also found time last weekend to perform music from the movies in a concert at the Sydney Opera House. Over the past two weeks, for instance, he has been in the US working on a film score with Lalo Schiffrin, lecturing and playing at a conference attended by 13,000 music teachers.
As an internationally renowned jazz musician, he travels to festivals and jazz clubs around the world in a busy fly-in, fly-out schedule that never leaves much time to soak up the atmosphere of a particular place. The Perth season of Boundary Street will be the first time James Morrison has spent a lengthy period in one city outside Sydney where he grew up. "There's no such thing as a finished script that you're presented with. "Working with Reg is a very organic experience," says Morrison. But Morrison has been in constant contact with the playwright and the director over the shaping of the music and its place in the production. The Morrison family arrives in Perth this week to join the cast in the final rehearsals in the lead-up to opening night on March 5 on the final weekend of the Perth International Arts Festival. "I told Reg I'd be happy to use the lyrics if I could play around with them a little," says Morrison. Cribb sent him some song lyrics and suggested he might like to use them for the tunes. He was also approached by director Cherry to write a series of original jazz tunes for the production, creating them in the idiom of the 1940s. James Morrison's involvement in Boundary Street goes beyond fronting the jazz band that creates the atmosphere of the Brisbane club where the events between American servicemen and Australians play out. Harry is almost the same age as his father was when he made his jazz debut as a 14-year-old trumpeter in Sydney clubs. But, as he points out, he's played in orchestra pits before, so he's one up on his old man." So he's making his professional theatrical debut, the same as me. "He'd talked about his experiences, and to get a certain authenticity into the production we decided Harry should join us. "I knew something about the background of wartime jazz in Australia because my mentor Don Burrows had started off in jazz clubs as a 14-year-old.
"I was fascinated by the story of Boundary Street when director Kate Cherry sent me the script and asked me if I would like to be part of the show," says Morrison. On stage with him will be his father, his drummer uncle John Morrison, vocalist Emma Pask and other Perth musicians. He will play the acoustic bass in this recreation of a 1940s jazz club in wartime Brisbane, where Cribb's new play is set. Harry, the youngest of Morrison's three boys, is an accomplished bass player and cellist who also plays in a rock band.
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