New Orleans’ own PJ Morton returns home to Jazz Fest with new music
NEW ORLEANS– Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and producer PJ Morton returns home with a new album and upcoming memoir during a Saturday afternoon performance at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which is nearing the end of an eight-day run.
Morton, the child of a preacher whose parents — the Rev. Paul and Debra Morton — are well-known in the city, said he looks forward to taking the stage at the Fair Grounds every year.
“Jazz Fest always feels like home,” Morton said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It feels like a family reunion. We want the food, just like everyone else. You see all your friends, you see everyone. There is nothing better than that.”
Morton said he doesn’t take for granted the love he feels in his hometown or in performances around the world.
“I’m amazed at the crowds and the rooms we get to play in,” he said. “The joy started in small clubs where we played for twenty to fifty people. Now there are thousands. I like seeing the growth. It’s just special to me on every level.
“I hope the fans go home with a good time. I want to give people everything I have and let people who are already familiar with my work know that they know it, and those who aren’t familiar with this ‘PJ Morton kid’ feel it too.
Since New Orleans is his home base, he says the city always gets something special.
“I play things here that I don’t play anywhere else, like ‘New Orleans Girl,’ which I wrote for Jazz Fest 10 years ago,” he said.
Morton has been the keyboardist for Maroon 5 since 2012. That year he also released his first debut solo EP, ‘Following My First Mind’. Maroon 5’s lead singer Adam Levine was featured on the lead single ‘Heavy’. The following year, Morton released his first major label debut album, ‘New Orleans’. And in 2017, he released his first self-released studio album “Gumbo,” which earned him two Grammy Award nominations.
In 2019 he took a Best R&B Grammy for “Say So” and Best Traditional R&B performance for ‘How Deep Is Your Love’. Since then, he has won three more Grammys for Best Gospel Album, Album of the Year and, this year, Best Traditional R.&B performance for ‘Good Morning’.
At Jazz Fest, Morton said fans can expect a mix of old and new, including songs from his latest project, ‘Cape Town to Cairo,’ a collection he created in 30 days during a trip that took him to South Africa, Nigeria . , Ghana and Egypt.
On Friday he released his new single ‘Smoke & Mirrors’, which is about ‘defying prejudices’ and has a ‘message that goes back to yourself’.
He said the project forced him to trust his intuition.
“I wrote every day and recorded every day for 30 days,” he said. “It was written entirely in Africa and now I’m giving it to the world. On my last album, ‘Watch The Sun’, I had a lot of duets with heavy hitters like Stevie Wonder and Nas and had so much time to think about everything because of the pandemic. This closes that chapter for me. I couldn’t think about this one. I wanted to be inspired by the moment and rely on my instincts. And it gave me real deadlines. Ultimately, I learned that limitations can give you freedom.”
In addition to the music, Morton said his memoir “Saturday Night, Sunday Morning” will be released on Nov. 12.
“I generally don’t talk about my journey. I make albums, I tour and I mind my business,” he said, laughing. “But in recent years the Grammy won and being able to do all this independently, own my masters and make my own decisions, I thought it was a good time to put it down on paper. ‘Emotions’ turns 20 years old in October and I thought it was a good time to share that stamp and let people know that some of this crazy stuff I was doing actually worked. I was able to do it this way, my way, and hopefully I can inspire some others to persevere on their own journeys.”
Jazz Fest concludes its eight-day run on Sunday. Other headliners on Saturday include Queen Latifah, Neil Young Crazy Horse, Greta Van Fleet, Tab Benoit and Sonny Landreth.