Australian jazz man James Morrison records gospel project.

LEGENDARY Australian jazz musician James Morrison, who in the past has performed with such figures as Dizzy Gillespie, Cab Calloway and George Benson, has recorded a gospel album. The trumpeter, who also plays trombone, flugel horn, saxophones, piano and organ, spoke about the album 'Gospel Collection' which features renditions of such oldies as "Amazing Grace", "Blessed Assurance" and "The Old Rugged Cross". "I first heard jazz music performed by a minister playing the trombone in a church. That was Neil Gough in Sydney when I was just seven years old. When I'm choosing songs for a mainstream album, it's not nearly so important what the songs are," he says. "It's important that I like the sound of them and that musically they fit together on an album. But if one song happens to be a love song and another happens to be about something else - it doesn't really matter. Here, what the songs are about matters. It is the whole purpose. Instead of the musical sound being the deciding factor, what the songs are about is the deciding factor. You've got songs with a message like 'Amazing Grace' and you've got another like 'His Eye Is On The Sparrow'. It's what the songs have to say that is important."