GLASGOW HERALD 10th May 2010

Morris Pert, who has died aged 62, was a jazz musician and composer who found acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic and worked with some of the biggest names in popular music.

Only a select few British musicians have been recognised in the Down Beat polls, so it seems safe to say Pert was the only musician from Arbroath to have featured in the prestigious American jazz magazine�s annual ratings.

Pert was voted No 4 jazz percussionist in the world by Down Beat in 1977, by which time he was also one of the most prominent composers of his generation, regularly receiving commissions from the BBC for large-scale orchestral works, as well as being a much respected session musician whose album credits run into hundreds and include big sellers by Paul

McCartney, Kate Bush, Bryan Ferry, Mike Oldfield, Chris de Burgh, Elvis Costello and Harry Nilsson.

Having taken up piano as a youngster in Arbroath, Pert went on to study music at Edinburgh University and following his graduation in 1969 he received a scholarship to study composition and percussion at the Royal Academy in London.

While at the academy he won several composition prizes, including the 1970 Royal Philharmonic Award for his orchestral work Xumba-Ata, and shortly after that he joined the celebrated Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta, appearing with Yamashta�s Red Buddha Theatre across Europe.

Working alongside Pert was the Dundee-born bass guitarist Alyn Ross and as a side project to Yamashta�s music they got together with keyboards player Pete Robinson to form the

popular jazz, rock and funk trio Suntreader.

Their first album, Zin-Zin, was released on Island Records in 1973 and is now highly sought after by vinyl collectors. With his mastery of an array of percussion instruments from around the world, Pert himself became sought after, adding what were then considered exotic sounds to pop and rock records over a period of eighteen years.

Session musicians are largely heard but not seen but Pert became very visible when he joined the jazz-rock band Brand X, which another of his regular session clients, Phil Collins, had formed with guitarist Johnny Goodsall and bassist Percy Jones to satisfy his more jazz-influenced urges during his time off from Genesis.

Creating, by turns, subtle percussive colours and explosive sound storms from behind a kit not much smaller than his home town, Pert became a crucial onstage presence in Brand X, resulting in his Down Beat poll success, while bringing imaginative compositions to a series of albums that included Moroccan Roll, Masques and Do They Hurt.

All the time he was also creating orchestral, choral, piano and electronic works and his ability to operate in different musical worlds simultaneously was noted when he took a composer�s bow

following the premiere of Ancient Rites, a piece for choir and strings, commissioned and performed in Glasgow by the John Currie Singers, with Pert looking every inch the touring rock musician.

As well as writing four symphonies, the third of which, The Ancient Kindred, was premiered by the Munich Opera Orchestra under Eberhard Schoener on German television in 1980, Pert also composed for ballet and theatre companies, including the incidental music for Frank Dunlop�s Young Vic production of Macbeth and the Oxford Playhouse production of The Tempest. He also arranged music for the London Symphony Orchestra�s Classic Rock album series.

In his latter years he settled far away from London, in Balchreick in Sutherland, where he continued to compose music that was often influenced by Pictish culture and symbolism.

His commissioners and professional experience may have been among the higher echelons of the music industry but that did not mean that Pert was above getting involved in the local community. When musicians from north west Sutherland clubbed together to raise money to buy recording equipment for the area�s primary schools, Pert was more than happy to help to produce a fund-raising cassette. He contributed two tracks, playing keyboards and percussion, and adding a group of local accordionists, pipers, singers and poets to the long and illustrious list of names whose records he appeared on.

Musician and composer;

Born September 9, 1947;

Died April 27, 2010.