Mornington Lockett interviewed

by Vic King at the Vectis Tavern, High Street, Cowes 9/3/00

Mornington Lockett's tutoring website is at: http://www.geocities.com/chero12kee

Download sound samples from Mornington Lockett's homepage: http://homepages.enterprise.net/bernardp/mlockett.html

Leading jazz musician Mornington Lockett, now based in London, was back on the Island to play his first gig here in over ten years at Newport's Riverside Centre. Through his connection with Island drummer Rupert Brown Mornington got only the briefest mentions on our Isle of Wight Rock book published in 1995. It was high time that we got to know him better, so I was able to arrange this interview on the night before the Riverside gig.

I know that you were born in London. Where was that?

I was born in Stepney. My family moved to the Island when I was 9 years old and my brother (Dorian) was born here. We used to have a cottage on Hunnyhill, and I went to junior school in Newport.

Are you from a musical family?

My father's mother was a piano teacher all her life from sixteen to ninety when she died. Not a performer, but she did a lot of teaching in Acton in West London. My parents are West Londoners.

How did you first get into jazz?

I heard it on the radio. People like Benny Goodman and Acker Bilk. I just sort of zoomed in on the clarinet. I was in the school band.

So were you able to sit in with some musicians, locally?

Yes, at the White Lion, Niton. Ron Chandler, who is now retired in Hertfordshire, Wally Webster, Leon on bass. They were on the QE2 and they would come over and jam in the White Lion. They didn't mind having people sitting in. 'After You'd Gone' was the first tune I learnt. I really sorted it out from hearing Dave Shephard and Benny Goodman's version. I just used to play that. I should have been doing my homework and getting an early night. There were about three or four jazz things a week on the Island in those days. The Falcon at Shanklin was the classic Unity Stompers gig.

Then you moved on to study sax at Dartington College in Devon?

Yes I changed instruments form the clarinet to the sax, formally. Bobby Welliins was a floating tutor there. He showed me that it wasn't really happening at all for me. He was quite candid about it. I used to go to Bognor Regis, stay in his house, two or three times a term and have a block of lessons. He showed me a lot of stuff. He would have been an obvious influence.

Who else?

There are millions of influences. English guys like Bobby Wellins and Don Weller who were gigging in the eighties. Tim Whitehead in London, and on record Stan Getz, just because somebody's mate had a few records that I heard. Phil Woods bebop stuff. The Coltrane stuff came a lot later.

I also read you studied the North Indian sitar at college?

I couldn't believe how seriously they take their practising. Practising and improvising techniques. there was a college trip to India. Three of us went out there with a tape recorder interviewing and recording people playing in their front rooms. We came back with some great tapes which are probably gathering dust on a library shelf. The sitar is a very different instrument it's basically piano wire that you have to bend with your fingers. Unless you do it for two hours a day, your fingers aren't tough enough. I don't play now.

After Dartington then, you moved on to the Guildhall School of Music in London.

I had a year at Dartington. I then came back to the Island for six months gigging. I applied to go to the Guildhall for a year and went there in 1985. It's a good place to meet people of your age who are going in the business. The Guildhall was the first Music College to have a full-time jazz course, a post graduate one. The Royal Academy now has a degree level course.

I want to return to the question of the John Coltrane influence.

I came to Coltrane alot later. Before Coltrane I got into the Miles Davis jazz rock stage. I got into Coltrane to the point that I was transcribing it. I used to knock myself out trying to speed it up and slow it down. After Coltrane I became interested in people like Michael Brecker because the style was a bit more contemporary. An interesting thing from my teaching web site is going back to Coltrane and realising just how much there is in there.

So what about your own playing currently?

I'm developing things in my own playing, harmonically. I think that some composition will come out of it. Dick Pierce and I were front men with Ronnie Scott, so it will be more straight ahead tomorrow.

How hard is it to play jazz in Britain today?

A lot of American players are coming over here, playing in places like Ronnies. That's making it slightly tougher for English guys. You have to generate your own scene. It's still difficult. There are more people playing. Music Colleges are turning out bright things. That's changed.

I wanted to mention Rupert Brown. How did you get to know him?

He was a school friend of my brother. That European tour that we did with Sarah Jane Morris was co-incidental. I've still got the tour t-shirt. When I did my gig last gig at the Quay Arts Centre, he was in the support band with my brother and Volker Katt.

What projects are you currently involved in?

Playing in various bands, Stan Tracey, Clark Tracey - that's quite challenging and I'm quite happy. I suppose ultimately I'll do another record.

Tell me about your tutoring page on the web.

The tutoring page is just for fun. It's generated half a dozen students for me in London, that's cool. Sticking harmonic stuff up onthe web is a good way of learning it yourself. I'm getting emails from the USA asking stuff about sax. It might become a commercial enterprise one day.

How is your brother Dorian?

He's living and working in London I tried to get him to come down for tomorrow's gig. We'll do it one day.

Do you enjoy coming back to the Island?

I don't do it as much as I should. You notice that it is totally silent at night. It takes me a day to get down to the right level. I'm used to fire engines roaming up Shepherds Bush Road. It's good to come down and re-charge the batteries.

Thanks very much Mornington.

Mornington Lockett's tutoring website is at: http://www.geocities.com/chero12kee

Download sound samples from Mornington Lockett's homepage: http://homepages.enterprise.net/bernardp/mlockett.html