MUSKEGON — After a decade, local musician Winford Lee Morrisey Jr.
again faces what seemed his destiny when he began his final year at
Muskegon High School in 2001.
Morrisey recently won a $16,000 prize package — the top award in cymbal maker Avedis Zildjian's national online Drummer Love
Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-MillsWinford
"Lee" Morrisey, 26, of Muskegon, opens the new drum kit he received as
part of a $16,000 prize package from the Zildjian cymbal maker contest.
An
all-star panel of judges watched drum solo videos submitted by more
than 1,500 contestants and selected two finalists from each of six
regions nationwide. Morrisey ran away with the Midwest North title. He
received just under 60 percent of the vote.
“His technical
ability is absolutely incredible. It’s easy to see why he was chosen,”
said Craig
Goldschmidt, manager of digital media for Zildjian.
“Personally, I think he was in the most competitive region, in terms of
the finalists.”
Goldschmidt visited Muskegon one recent rainy
summer day to personally deliver the prize package which included a
complete set of cymbals — the first set of new ones Morrisey has ever
owned.
Traveling with Goldschmidt was rock photographer Robert
Downs, in Muskegon for a daylong photo shoot for a “DRUM!” magazine
feature on Morrisey scheduled for its December issue.
Still at
the barbershop when Goldschmidt and Downs arrived to meet him, Morrisey
was greeted by a 3-foot-high stack of cardboard boxes piled in the
center of his mother’s living room, all stamped with the distinctive
“Zildjian” logo.
Although it was far too hot and muggy to be
mistaken for Christmastime, there was more than a hint of boyish
excitement in Morrisey’s manner as he began to methodically unwrap his
prizes.
Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-Mills
Morrisey
played the drums in his church for a recent photo shoot with Los
Angeles photographer Robert Downs, right, who was using a red-gel flash
for a special effect.
Drummer foreverIt
was clear from the moment, at age 3, that he began banging on his
mother’s pots and pans on the kitchen floor that Morrisey was going to
be a drummer.
“He’s been a drum lover forever,” said his mother,
Muskegon Housing Commission Executive Director Yvonne Morrisey. “He’s
always had a passion for music. He spent hours on end every day
practicing.”
From the start, Morrisey’s father, the late Rev.
Winford Morrisey, played a pivotal role in his development as a man and
as a musician.
Young Morrisey’s infatuation, however, did not cut much ice with his father.
“My
dad was a southern guy. He was really hardcore. He didn’t believe in
buying things for you because you said you wanted them. He wanted to see
if you were serious,” Morrisey said.
His father watched without comment as Morrisey practiced for hours on the homemade drum set he’d cobbled together.
“When he saw I was serious, he said ‘I’ll make the investment and buy you some drums.’”
Chronicle/Kendra Stanley-Mills
An
animated Los Angeles photographer, Robert Downs, poses for a photo for
Zildjian after Downs was finished taking photos of Morrisey.
Musical growth
Morrisey
progressed quickly, playing in church when he was only 10. By the time,
as an eighth-grader, he met former Muskegon High band director John
Hill, his talent was undeniable.
“I could see that he had talent
and he definitely had some aptitude,” Hill remembers. “I could just tell
he was passionate, interested and focused.”
Morrisey credits Hill with reinforcing the work ethic his father had already instilled in him.
“Mr.
Hill really took me under his wing. He taught me the ropes and took me
up to the high school to play as an eighth-grader,” Morrisey remembers.
When
Hill accepted a job offer at a school in Holly, he said one of his
biggest regrets was not being able to watch Morrisey grow.
And
grow he did. He was the top drummer for Muskegon High’s premier jazz
band as a freshman, rivaling the prior accomplishments of legendary Big
Red drummer Derico Watson (who went on to perform with such A-listers as
James Brown, Spyro Gyra, and Earth, Wind and Fire).
Morrisey took
all-state honors as a sophomore and was later named top musician
overall at the prestigious Western Invitational Jazz Festival at Western
Michigan University.
There seemed few limits on the outgoing and
likeable Morrisey’s future after high school, said Jim Lawrence, Hill’s
successor at MHS. “He could have gone a number of directions: pursued
scholarships on a collegiate level, landed a position with a large
church or pursued the contemporary music scene professionally.”
Although
he winced when Morrisey announced he was going out for the football
team, Lawrence gave his blessing, with just one caveat: “I told him,
‘Just make sure to insure your hands. Those hands are golden,’ I told
him.”
During the fall of Morrisey’s senior year, Lawrence noticed
a shadow clouding Morrisey’s normally sunny disposition. He did not go
out for football and was talking about giving up music. His father was
gravely ill and Morrisey began working full time.
“You could see
the change come over him,” said Lawrence. “Lee (the name Morrisey used
in school) had been a big kid until then, carefree and happy-go-lucky.
Suddenly, with his father’s illness, he became much more serious about
things and about being there for his family.”
Down beat
Family replaced music as the focus of Morrisey’s life. The loss of his father was devastating.
“He
was my guide. He would keep me mellow. Any kid can make mistakes, but
you need your father there to keep you cool,” Morrisey says.
Without
his father as his sounding board, Morrisey felt unprepared to face the
challenges and temptations he’d face away from home.
“I felt that
if I went off to school I would start partying or maybe take drugs. I
ended up going to Muskegon Community College,” Morrisey says.
Focused
on providing emotional support for his grieving family, Morrisey’s
studies suffered and he lost his financial aid for school.
“I needed to learn to cope by myself,” he said.
Stopped cold
Three years later, Morrisey’s resolve was tested once more.
“When
I pulled my glove off, Dude! I almost passed out. I screamed like a
girl. The first thing I thought was: ‘I can’t play the drums anymore!’”
Two of his fingers were broken and a third was nearly severed.
It
was early 2005. The snowblower Morrisey was using to clear the driveway
at his mother’s house had come to a dead stop. As he cleared the heavy
mix of slush and snow wedged solidly around the auger, the seemingly
stalled machine suddenly roared back to life, smashing Morrisey’ gloved
left hand with stunning force.
Emergency surgery saved all his fingers and extensive rehab restored his ability to play the drums.
“To
this day, I can’t move my fingers the way I’m supposed to, but I can
drum and do what I have to do with them,” Morrisey said.
Kendra Stanley-Mills | The Muskegon Chronicle
Winford "Lee" Morrisey, 26, of Muskegon, plays
the drums inside
Great Lakes Kingdom Ministry where he attends church,
during a
photo shoot on July 27, 2011. The photo shoot by Los Angeles
photographer Robert Downs, was for Morrisey winning Zildjian's
first-ever Drummer Love contest in which drummers across the
United
States competed in six regions. Nearly 1,500 video
submissions were
judged by world-renowned drummers and
Morrisey was voted the
Midwest-North Region winner. Downs and
Digital Media Manager of
Zildjian, Craig Goldschmidt, came to
Muskegon on July 27, 2011 to do a
photo shoot for a feature in
DRUM! Magazine and to deliver the
merchandise he won.
Day job
Morrisey
pursued music part time in the years that followed, but was focused
full time on his job as an assistant manager at a discount retail store
in Grand Rapids.
His life, it seemed, had turned down a more
conventional path. Soon he had a son and later he sold his drum kit to
help the boy’s mother finish college.
“We broke up and I was just left with nothing,” he says. “I prayed to God that he would restore everything to me.”
Morrisey was at a low point when he decided to quit his job in 2008.
“I gave it up because I felt like God told me I had greater things in store,” he said.
Back on beat
Morrisey
credits Apostle Rodney Savage and Muskegon's Great Lakes Kingdom
Ministry with helping to guide and support him through the tough
decisions.
Now, three years later, it seems Morrisey has made the right choices.
Currently,
he’s studying architecture at Andrews University in Berrien Springs.
But he has a tempting offer on the table to follow his first love once
more. He’s been touring with gospel singer/songwriter Justin Davis.
“Justin
has offered me a place to stay in Atlanta. I could study at the Atlanta
Institute of Music and Justin has some contacts with recording studios
there,” Morrisey says.
It would mean leaving Muskegon and spending far less time with his 3-year-old son, Adan Lee Morrisey.
“I
love my son and I don’t get to see him as much as I want. I keep a
picture near my bed and it’s crazy because he looks exactly like me and
is starting to do the things I used to do,” Morrisey says.
He recently bought Adan his first drum kit.
Right now, it’s still up in the air whether he’ll stay in Muskegon or move to Atlanta.
“He definitely has the ability to make a living as a musician,” said Goldschmidt.
“He
has the same tremendous work ethic that Derico has,” said Lawrence.
“The thing Derico was able to do was to meet a number of people in the
professional arena and doors opened. I hope the same thing will happen
for Lee.”
To view Winford Morrisey Jr.’s winning drum solo, visit:
zildjian.com/DrummerLove/MidwestNorth.
Dave LeMieux is a Chronicle correspondent.