Limelight speaks to Jazz trumpet icon and Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival, James Morrison

The Queensland Music Festival is a beast of an event. With venues spread across the whole state, it covers the largest geographical area of any such event in the world, but it’s not just the footprint of the QMF that’s vast. From classical to jazz to world music, with a healthy amount of cross-genre fusion to boot, the variety of music on offer is also truly gargantuan. With a personality almost as big as the state of Queensland, Australian jazz trumpet icon and QMF Artistic Director James Morrison tells Limelight’s Online Editor, Maxim Boon, what’s in store this year.

It’s quite an impressive range, not just musically but geographically, that you have to cover with this festival. Is it a daunting challenge, pairing a specific performance with the right audience all over the state?

In this festival you’ve got everything from pop-up venues like the paddock, to QPAC. It’s what’s right for the place and for the people that’s crucial, and it’s a careful balance between giving people what they want but...