Marking a life in music

FAREWELL: Jim realises his lifetime ambition as he faces terminal cancer

Perthshire musician Jim Morrice and Dundee friend and musician Paul Wright toast their new album which has been completed in a rush after Jim’s terminal cancer diagnosis. Picture: Alan Wilson.

A Perthshire musician struck down by terminal cancer has realised his lifetime’s ambition to record an album of his own music after being given just months to live.

Multi-instrumentalist Jim Morrice, who played saxophone, clarinet and flute and sang with several well-known bands throughout Scotland, recorded the album during lockdown after being informed by doctors in February that he has cancer of the oesophagus.

Initially he was told he might live for at least another 10 years but tests confirmed it had spread to his liver and in April he was told he might only have four months to live.

Jim, 73, said: “Around that time I had bought a cheap video camera and recorded three video heads of me playing some of my own sax melodies, really just to see what quality it was.

“I sent them to my friend Lefty (Dundee musician Paul Wright).

“I didn’t set out to do an album, I just sent him some more ideas and he came up here to my house and it all took off.”

The pair worked on Jim’s songs in his garden during lockdown and – once it was permitted – in his home studio and ended up with an album.

“I’ve always been a jazz blues fan although it isn’t a jazz blues album.

“It’s really a collection of musical ideas I’ve had for a long time but it definitely has a New Orleans vibe running through it all.

“I’m very grateful to Lefty for being the driving force and making it all possible.”

Lefty said: “Nobody could come and see Jim because he was vulnerable during lockdown but when the doctors told him he might only have four months to live, it was a huge shock and I knew then we had to get a move on.

“We realised that all the drums used in the recording were sent to us by recently deceased musicians so we thought Dead Men’s Drums would be an apt title.”

Jim, whose previous bands include Bittersweet, The Vikings, The Jellyroll Band and Lefty & Friends, has also taught music at Strathallan School and Glenalmond College.

Refusing to bemoan his luck, Jim humbly accepts what has happened.

“I’m just keen now to see what people think of it, but I know I might not be around to see it,” he said.

Dead Men’s Drums has just been released and is now available to buy online at jimmorrice.bandcamp.com

Jim Morrice plays saxophone while recording his New Orleans-style album.