By Matt Micucci
The James Morrison Academy of Music, will open a jazz club in Mount Gambier, South Australia. The aim of the club is to attract more international musicians who would usually only stop in bigger cities, such as Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, to Mount Gambier. On top of this, the venue will also offer students of the academy a venue in which they will be able to perform to the public.
James Morrison, the musician, composer and educator who founded the dedicated Jazz school in Partnership with the University of South Australia last year, said he hopes the club will prove to be very successful among both his students and the general public. Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce president Lynette Martin welcomed the prospect of a new business for the area, and expects it to attract more tourists to the region.
About 65 students are due to begin their music studies at the academy this week, up from the inaugural 50 it took in last year, and a jazz vocalist course is expected to be added. Two Americans, saxophonist Jeff Clayton and trombone player and trumpeter Wycliff Gordon, along with Australian tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts, will join the academy as artists-in-residence this year.