Other events in Baltic States

Trumpet player James Morrison, in Riga to perform together with the Latvian Radio Big Band at Congress Center November 28, will release an album with Latvian folk songs in new arrangements, informs LETA.

The impresario behind the international music festival "Rigas ritmi" – Maris Briezkalns, said at a press conference that Morrison's arrangements, which he will also perform at the concert, will be recorded on CD which he will take back to Australia in order to prepare an album. In this way, the traditional music of the Latvian people will be heard all over the world, Briezkalns said.

Morrison said that jazz musicians usually perform either "standards" or their own original music, however, this program will be different.

He indicated that it would have been much easier to create a CD of his own songs, however, arranging Latvian folk songs turned out to be more interesting and original. Morrison said that he and the Latvian Radio Big Band will perform on stage "as an Australian soloist and a Latvian big band, who will play Latvian music in an Australian composer's arrangement."

"Why should we play American standards?" Morrison asked.

James Morrison plays a variety of instruments, including the trombone, flugelhorn, saxophone, piano, and double-bass, yet he is best known as a jazz trumpet player. He has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra and also performed special concerts for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. Presidents Bush and Clinton at Parliament House in Australia. Morrison was recently appointed as the Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival for the second time, as well as was inducted into one of the most prestigious Australian Halls of Fame – "Allans Billy Hyde Graeme Bell Hall". In 2013, Morrison conducted the world’s biggest orchestra, consisting of 7,224 people. In 1997, he was recognized for his service to the arts in Australia and awarded a medal of the Order of Australia.