by Steve Griggs
Recently I bought the new Lee Morgan CD "Standards" (Blue Note) and enjoyed listening to the great arrangements by Duke Pearson with solos by Lee, Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Upon reading the liner notes by David Weiss, I glimpsed a dark side of this product.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Mr. Weiss writes, "He recorded four albums as a leader in 1965, three in 1966, and four (including this one) in 1967.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Since Blue Note released about one album a year for each artist, you can see how there would be a bit of a backlog.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Fortunately this meant that there were a number of fine albums in the can at the time of Lee's untimely death.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Many have been released sporadically over the years, and now, finally, you have this one..."
I don't think "a number of fine albums" ofÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ unreleased material was very "fortunate" for Mr. Morgan.
Mr Weiss concludes with, "What a treat it is to have, 25 years after his death, a new Lee Morgan album and to be reminded what an important voice he was in this music.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ It's also a reminder of what a vital creative period this music was recorded in.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ This album holds up with any jazz album being released today, a fairly easy task considering most of today's young jazz stars are in retro mode.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Lee Morgan come up emulating Clifford Brown, but grew into one of the finest, most influential jazz trumpet players ever.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ There are many young trumpet players out there now emulating Lee Morgan.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ Will we be celebrating the discovery of an unreleased session by one of these musicians 30 years from now?ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ For the sake of the music, I hope so."
I don't think "celebrating the discovery" of another artist's work that was sold after the artist could benefit is the proper phrase here.ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ I think that these celebrations are more for the sake of the recording company than the "sake of the music."
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