Less prolific and overshadowed by other UK tenorists, Dick Morrissey’s tasty mid-1960s pair of quartet LPs on the Mercury label deserve reassessment with a side-dish of factual accuracy.
UK tenor saxophonist Dick Morrissey emerged on the London jazz scene at the start of the 1960s and quickly forged an exciting live reputation. He was just 21 years old when recorded his debut LP It’s Morrissey, Man! for Fontana in 1961 and then promptly decamped to India for over a year. That decision seems to have put the kibosh on his relationship with Fontana but it did cement his bond with pianist Harry South. When the pair returned to the UK in 1963, they formed a quartet with the addition of former Jazz Couriers members Phil Bates (bass) and Jackie Dougan (drums). Morrissey, South and Bates remained a stable unit playing live and recording three albums together over the next three years with a different drummer on each occassion.
The first of the three long players, 1963’s Have You Heard?, is now a UK jazz record collectors’ holy grail. Unfortunately for Morrissey, at the time of release, it got little attention outside London by dint of being recorded for 77 Records, the tiny label associated with Doug Dobell’s Charing Cross Road record shop. But somebody must have been listening because Morrissey soon found himself cutting a pair of records for Mercury, a company not known for dipping its toes in the UK jazz scene.
The first of these of albums was Storm Warning!, recorded on the evenings of 22 and 29 November 1965 and released in early 1966. For some reason, a lot of secondary sources on the Internet (including Wikipedia) assert that this record is a live recording. Perhaps it’s the fact it was recorded on two evenings? Perhaps it’s the front cover photo? Perhaps it’s the way the sleeve notes mention the quartet’s regular live dates at The Bull’s Head in Barnes? Whatever the reason, the assertion is based on assumptions and not facts. I have closely compared the sound of Storm Warning! with Here And Now And Sounding Good! and it’s almost identical. The latter is definitely a studio date and my copies of both records are mono first pressings. So there’s no doubt in my mind that Storm Warning! is a studio recording and not a live one. Indeed, the 2011 Vocalion CD reissue backs up my conclusion by stating that both LPs were recorded at the Philips Studios, Stanhope Place, London. Please let me know if you have additional information.
And so to the music: of course Storm Warning! is a showcase for Morrissey. It’s his tone that stands out. He has a clean, clear, soulful sound that blends aspects of several American players. Other people have mentioned Mobley and Rollins and I’d like to add Turrentine to that brew. Technically, Morrissey is not as supercharged as that doyenne of UK saxophonists, Tubby Hayes, but he is really enjoyable and I can see why the quartet was so appealing on the live circuit.
The group’s not-so-secret weapon here is the semi-mythical drummer Phil Seamen. Seamen seems to be one of the few jazz musicians about whom every tall story was probably true! He famously lived life with the dial permanently set at eleven and while this sometimes resulted in erratic performances, when Seamen was on it, he was incredible. A lot of his work on this record isn’t showy, in-your-face stuff but, for example, pay close attention to what he does under the soloists on Come Rain Or Come Shine.
South is not such an engaging player as Morrissey but he is an accomplished composer and contributes two fine tunes to Storm Warning! This side of his career flourished in the 1970s and perhaps his most lasting contribution to British culture was the theme tune to the TV police series The Sweeney.
The quartet was back in the studio less than a year later on 23 and 23 September 1966 to record Here And Now And Sounding Good! albeit now with Bill Eyden on drums. With mostly the same band, same studio and the same producer/liner notes author it’s hardly a surprise that consistent results were achieved. The main difference second time around was an emphasis on highlighting British composers. So we get two Tubby Hayes’ tunes, one by Ian Hamer, a Stan Tracey chart and the balance from South. In fact this was the first recording of Hayes’ Off The Wagon and pre-dates the master’s own version on Mexican Green.
As mentioned above, my copies of both records are mono first pressings. The sleeves are the traditional UK flipback design with laminated fronts. The thin card used to make these flipbacks often left them vulnerable to damage but mine have fared well over their near sixty year lifespans. They have also done their jobs well to protect the vinyl which is in lovely condition.
The labels on both records are the Mercury design of the mid-1960s that featured silver printing on a stylish textured matt black paper. There are some minor design changes between the two pairs of labels – feel free to indulge in a game of “spot the difference”. The other fun thing is that Mercury’s copy editors were a little inconsistent with their treatment of exclamation marks on Here And Now And Sounding Good. They appear on the labels and the rear of the cover but didn’t make the cut for the front cover.
Vinyl collectors of Dick Morrissey 1960s output are not well served. Both these records have only been re-issued scarcely. They both got 1993 pressings in Japan on the Norma label and Here And Now And Sounding Good! garnered one further limited edition re-issue in 2006 – again, in Japan. So you can see why I’m so delighted to have them both in my collection.
into somethin' 