INTERNATIONAL jazz stars landed in Mount Gambier on Thursday to entertain students at the James Morrison Academy.
Branford Marsalis and his entire band arrived from New York to perform and give master classes.
“Having some of the best musicians and educators in the world visit Mount Gambier and inspire our students is part of what we do,” head of school James Morrison said.
“I was recently with Branford in Russia for International Jazz Day and we were talking about the academy – he said he would like to visit and here he is, just three weeks later.”
The members of Mr Marsalis’ band all gave master classes before coming together with the entire student body to perform and discuss how they make music.
This visit was hot on the heels of the annual Generations in Jazz festival, where legendary vocalist Patti Austin and Australian festival band The Cat Empire performed exclusively in Mount Gambier.
“The Limestone Coast has certainly become a hot spot for jazz,” Mr Morrison said.
