Morrissey - Mullen

Morrissey Mullen, aka M&M is a British jazz-funk/fusion group of the seventies and eighties. It was formed by Dick Morrissey, ex-IF, (tenor and soprano saxes and flute) and Jim Mullen, ex-Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, (guitar), who joined forces in 1975 and played together for some 16 years, during which they came to be known as "Mr Sax and Captain Axe" because of their hallmark based around "duels" or calls and responses between guitar and sax.

Early years

The band actually came into being in New York City where Dick Morrissey and Jim Mullen were recording and touring with their mutual friends in the Average White Band and Herbie Mann.

Coinciding with the recording and release of the first of seven Morrissey Mullen albums (plus two EPs), "Up" (Atlantic, 1977), which featured the guys from AWB as a rhythm section, plus Luther Vandross and Cissy Houston on vocals, together with some of the New York scene’s top session musicians (see Discography below), the Morrissey Mullen band spent eight months in New York. A six-week residency at New York’s famed Mikell’s, attracted the attention of many of the top musicians of the day, with Boz Scaggs, David Sanborn, Steve Gadd, Steve Ferrone, Richard Tee, George Benson, Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker and many others dropping by for a jam.

On their return to the United Kingdom, and shunning the gruelling road, Morrissey Mullen concentrated on the small-club/pub circuit, with sell-out gigs at the venues they played at, including a residency at The Half Moon, Putney for many years. In 1979, EMI commissioned them to enter the Abbey Road recording studios to make EMI's first-ever digital recording of a non-classical music piece, a cover of the Rose Royce hit "Love Don't Live Here Anymore". Their 1981 album "Badness" reached number one in the UK disco charts.

The band featured heavily in the live sessions of Night Owls, a BBC Radio 2 programme presented by jazz writer and tenor saxophonist Dave Gelly.

Line-ups

M&M's backing band had various regular line-ups featuring British jazz musicians such as Martin Drew on drums, John Mole (ex-Colosseum II) on bass, and Pete Jacobsen, John Critchinson or John Burch on piano (with whom Dick Morrissey would also form an octet in 1984).

Early members of the band had included two top session musicians from New Zealand: Frank Gibson, Jr. on drums and Bruce Lynch on bass. The band was also a springboard for a new generation of young British musicians, including Chris Fletcher on percussion, Gary Husband on drums, Claire Hamill and Carol Kenyon as vocalists (both on whom appeared with Dick Morrissey on the 1981 Jon & Vangelis album "The Friends of Mr. Cairo"), Tessa Niles, and Noel McCalla among others, until Dick Morrissey’s ill health required too many visits to hospital for the band to be viable.

When M&M finally dissolved in 1988, Jim Mullen and Dick Morrissey continued meeting up for what would in effect be jam sessions with what they called, in their characteristically easy-going style, “Our Band”, usually featuring the same musicians that had accompanied them in M&M.

Live appearances

They appeared together at the 1991 Cork Jazz Festival in the Metropole Hotel in Cork, Ireland.

Discography

Albums

*"Up" (1976) Atlantic-Embryo SD-536

*"Cape Wrath" (1979) EMI-Harvest

*"Badness" (1981)

*"Life on the Wire" (1982)

*"It’s About Time" (1983)

*"After Dark" (1983)

*"This Must Be the Place" (1985)

*"Happy Hour" (1988)

*"" (2003)

ingles

"Love Don't Live Here Anymore" - (1979) EMI-Harvest (digitally recorded 12" vinyl single). Produced by John Darnley.

Sources

"The Independent" Obituaries Thursday 9 November 2000

External links

* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:zv0e4j171wae~T1 All Music Guide]