With James Morrison it really is a case of seeing is believing. Without having seen him live it's very difficult to get your head around the fact that someone can effortlessly change from trumpet to trombone to alto sax to tenor sax to piano, sometimes in the space of one song, and be so accomplished on every instrument. In 1989 he recorded an album called Snappy Doo, a big band album in which he played all the brass and saxophone parts, plus piano. He had been intending to do a follow-up ever since, but it has taken until now to realise his ambition because he is in so much demand. Bass and guitar on Snappy Doo were played by Ray Brown and Herb Ellis but since they have departed for the great jam session in the sky, Morrison plays these parts as well on Snappy Too. Jeff Hamilton returned on drums, but Morrison couldn't resist contributing a drum solo on ‘Zog's Jog’. This may be solid, swinging big band fare, but it's very good solid, swinging big band fare made all the remarkable (and surreal) by the fact that all parts (other than drums) are played by Morrison himself (whose hobbies, incidentally, are motor racing, bungee jumping and flying). And in case you’re wondering, he did ten of the 11 arrangements on the album as well. Highlights – well his prowess on trombone on ‘Getting Sentimental Over You’ deserves mention as does his soprano sax and flugel horn solos on ‘No Regret’, and his powerful lead trumpet playing on the coda of ‘All of Me’.

Jazzwise spoke to James Morrison about the album…How long did the recording take?

Over about three months. I did all my recording in bits and pieces, and when I finally had it all done I took it over to LA and said to Jeff [Hamilton], ‘OK, the band's down, now you play with it!’

One of the fascinations is the way you swap instruments, and embouchure comes into this, and having seen you in live performance it doesn't seem to trouble you going from trumpet to trombone to saxophone.

I never decided to be a multi-instrumentalist – I never knew there was such a thing in jazz, I just found out I was one. I'd just get hold of an instrument and start playing it, I have never found the physical differences between instruments to be that big a deal, I'm thinking more about the music itself, and what I'm playing rather than how it's played, and given that it makes it quite easy to change instruments

Which is the real you?

I don't really have a favourite instrument, one I feel the most affinity for, if I did I might play that one more often and not pay so much excess luggage! I honestly feel when I'm playing any instrument that while I'm playing it, that's the instrument. But that sort of feeling means whenever your playing and whatever you're playing, you're really into the sound of that instrument.