A British jazz musician and composer who played tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.

Morrissey emerged in the early 1960s in the wake of Tubby Hayes, Britain’s pre-eminent sax player at the time. Self-taught, he started playing clarinet in his school band at the age of 16 and then joining the Original Climax Jazz Band. He then played with trumpeter Gus Galbraith's Septet, where Pete King introduced him to Charlie Parker's recordings and began specialising on tenor saxophone shortly after.

He recorded his first solo album in 1961 at the age of 21. He spent most of 1962 in Calcutta, India as part of the Ashley Kozak Quartet, before returning to the UK and forming The Dick Morrissey Quartet with Harry South on piano, Phil Seamen on drums and Phil Bates on bass. The quartet recorded three albums during the 1960s and played regular London gigs at The Bull's Head, Barnes and at Ronnie Scott's.

He also played briefly in Ted Heath's Big Band, which featured many name jazz musicians over the years, as well as with Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra and the Harry South Big Band. With fellow tenors Stan Robinson and Al Gay, baritone sax Paul Carroll and trumpeters Mike Carr, Kenny Wheeler and Greg Brown, Morrissey formed part of (Eric Burdon and) The Animals' Big Band that made its one-and-only public appearance at the 5th Annual British Jazz & Blues Festival in Richmond in 1965.

Many US musicians touring Britain at the time, including Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Witherspoon and Sonny Stitt together with guitarist Ernest Ranglin recorded with him during the 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1969, Morrissey teamed up with guitarist Terry Smith, with whom he had worked in J.J. Jackson’s Band, to form an early jazz-rock group, If. Encouraged by the success of the then recently-formed US bands Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chicago, both of which featured heavy brass sections, the time seemed right for them. Essentially a live band, and true to its jazz influences, it recorded 7 albums between 1969 and 1975.

Morrissey then toured Germany with Alexis Korner followed by a tour and recording in the US with the Average White Band, where he met up with Glaswegian guitarist, Jim Mullen, who had played with Brian Auger's Oblivion Express with some of the members of AWB. Together they formed Morrissey - Mullen (aka M&M), recording their first album, Up (1976) in New York and becoming the UK’s most highly acclaimed jazz-fusion band of the day. M&M recorded 7 albums over the 16 years they were together, with Morrissey and Mullen collaborating on each other’s solo albums.

In between regular M&M gigs, Morrissey also met up with old friends Ian Stewart, Charlie Watts, Alexis Korner, Jack Bruce, Colin Hodgkinson, Don Weller, Zoot Money, John Picard and Colin Smith to play boogie-woogie/jazz/rock with the back-to-the-roots fun band, Rocket 88, that Stewart put together with Bob Hall.

Over the years, Morrissey also played, toured and recorded with a wide range of other UK and US musicians, including Georgie Fame, Dusty Springfield, Paul McCartney, Gary Numan and Jon & Vangelis.

He died in November 2000 after many years fighting various forms of cancer.