Morrison Jazz Academy To Close, But Not Really, Apparently

Howdy dear availees, and welcome to a super short post about the worst kept secret in Mt Gambier...on Thursday evening 11th November 2021, at the Morrison Jazz Academy's 'Farewell Concert', James Morrison officially announced that the Jazz Academy would be closing...(but not really closing?-Ed)...well indeed, there's not going to be classes, students, etc, at the Academy's Town Hall site, but the Academy is going to remain there...(waaah? how's that gunna' work then?-Ed)...well, I'll let Jimmy Trumpets explain in his own words, as recorded last Thursday and played yesterday morning (Saturday) on the ABC South East Radio...in brief, Morrison's gunna' keep the Town Hall as a 'base', and do "outreach" to remote and/or disadvantaged communities...(and does he again blame COVID19 for the collapse of his Academy?-Ed)...indeed he does...I missed the first 5-10 seconds, but here's the rest...***

James Morrison

(???) quite a small cohort. COVID has wrought havoc across the world with all sorts of things, not the least of the tertiary education sector in Australia and our partners UniSA haven't managed to dodge that one. And so all of their third party programs (???) of which we are one, we are under their umbrella but we're an autonomous organisation, have been cut, they just can't do that under these (???) and cannot for some time probably, so this graduating class basically are the last students walking out of the Academy and we've been looking at ways  to continue, different things to do and we came to a crossroads at the end of this year, and Judy and I have looked at all sorts of possibilities we've talked with the faculty, and we came to a decision the Academy is not going to continue in it's present form. 

We're not going to be doing Bachelor degrees and not even going to be doing tertiary education anymore, but, my great friend and mentor Don Burrows spent a lot of his life, a lot of his career, (taking?) music to people who otherwise couldn't access it to the disadvantaged, and they might be kids in outback regions or just geographically disadvantaged (have?) access it could be people who are socio-economically disadvantaged it might be right in the middle of a big city, they just don't have the resources to have music at their school could be an Indigenous community, could be anything, just people who didn't enjoy the wonderful access that so many of our fortunate students do in school to have music, and he really felt that and wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance. Well, Don left a foundation before he passed away, and some wonderful people have contributed to that and we want to continue Don's work and that ethos, and so the Academy is now I say morphing, but I think the current word is pivoting, but we're changing, and what we're going to do is continue that work (of?) Don's and we're going to become an outreach organisation.

So the Academy will 'pop-up', it's a pop-up Academy, so the James Morrison Academy will be in Far-North Queensland or somewhere in the Pilbarra or right here in Mt Gambier wherever it's needed and wherever there are young people who don't have access to music we're going to take it to them. And I'm very excited and thrilled that so many of our alumni have upon hearing of this and want to be involved and want to come and do that with us, which is fantastic. We're still going to be based in Mt Gambier, that logo that says 'James Morrison Academy - Mt Gambier', stays (applause ???) with the Town Hall, and we're going to take that logo with Mt Gambier on it all round the world. We've already people approach us from Spain, to come there (???) some disadvantaged kids, and take the Academy there and take all round the world. So the Academy in one sense is very sad, it looks like we're stopping but it's actually getting much much bigger in it's outlook and what we think we can do and what we can contribute, so never you mind what way it is. So while it's quite sad not doing Bachelor degrees, it's just one way of teaching music, and we've done it for seven years and it's been amazing, as you can see, so we're going to do it another way now, and so some things change and some remain the same so that's what's happening...(applause)...***

Now that's a near-perfect transcript, with guesstimated punctuation, and with some inaudible (???) bits...(well the context is clear through-out, if not genuine in it's content, I mean, why is Morrison blaming COVID19?-Ed)...indeed, and as proven in the previous posts on this issue, UniSA refused to offer an explanation, saying 'talk to James Morrison about it'...(and when the issue of the Rape/Indecent Assault of a student was raised as being a possible reason, UniSA reportedly again declined to comment-Ed)...it seems fairly straight forward that if UniSA had a genuine excuse relating to COVID19 then they would have simply said that...(but they didn't-Ed)...no, no they didn't, UniSA offered no explanation...(well I know what we here at TMGI think, and that others have expressed the same opinion-Ed)...and that is?...(that Morrison and his Academy have a well-deserved reputation as being 'un-safe' for young female students, and that UniSA therefore chose to distance themselves from him-Ed)...indeed, and that it was Morrison's bizarre conduct in his unwavering public and legal support for 'alleged' Rapist Matthew Harkin that really was the final straw...

And if any of the parties involved want to challenge and/or discuss this issue and clarify/establish the actual facts, then we at TMGI are open to discussion and then blogging about those alternative explanations/reasons...  

I am also aware that there were some 'issues' about how Morrison came to be in control of the 'Don Burrows Foundation'....(are you talking about the issues with Burrow's friends and/or family being effectively side-lined late in his life?-Ed)...yeah, and it's all a bit convoluted, so again, if any of the parties involved want to discuss this issue, we're right here...

Tomorrow: Possibly More Morrison

Apparently Jimmy Trumpets is gunna' be on the ABC SE Radio tomorrow morning...(apart from the ABC I'm not seeing anything in the Mt Gambier media yet, and this speech was Thursday evening, and played yesterday morning, so the news is already well around town-Ed)...yeah, and there was a brief article in Saturday's The Advertiser too...anyway, perhaps things will be clearer after tomorrow...

I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...