Jazz Articles about Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan: Reflections

by Michael P. Gladstone
December 1, 2006

Alto saxophonist Frank Morgan remains one of the coolest bebop players and an inspiration to all. The legend of his losing three decades of his musical career to drug abuse and incarceration, followed by a significant rebirth in 1985, has already been retold too many times. Morgan's post-'85 albums remain a study in lyricism, swing and, in a word, the very best of the lifelong lessions imparted by his mentor, Charlie Parker. Unfortunately, Parker's influence upon the then-teenage Morgan was ...

Frank Morgan: Raising the Standard: Live at the Jazz Standard, Vol. 2

by Joel Roberts
October 17, 2005

Frank Morgan was almost one of the cautionary tales of jazz history; instead, he's become one of its most remarkable survivor stories. A promising Los Angeles alto saxophonist in the '50s, he disappeared from the scene for thirty years as he battled a heroin addiction and served a series of jail terms. Morgan conquered his habit and returned to recording in 1985, turning out a stream of consistently excellent albums in the Charlie Parker-inspired bebop style he'd begun exploring three ...

Frank Morgan: Raising the Standard: Live at the Jazz Standard, Vol. 2

by Jack Bowers
September 20, 2005

Raising the Standard, Frank Morgan's second album for HighNote, is a followup to last year's widely acclaimed City Nights, recorded, like that release, before an audience at the Jazz Standard nightclub in New York City. The lineup remains the same, with Morgan accompanied by a superlative rhythm section comprised of pianist George Cables, bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Billy Hart.

Morgan, who was out of circulation for three decades owing to drug addiction and imprisonment for same before making a ...

Frank Morgan: City Nights

by Florence Wetzel
October 15, 2004

Jazz careers are predictably unpredictable. Some musicians shine young, some are late bloomers, and others maintain a steady flame for decades. Then there's that intriguing handful who come back after years of obscurity; contemporary examples include Henry Grimes, Sonny Simmons, and alto saxophonist Frank Morgan. Born in 1930, Morgan was fortunate to be part of the legendary 1940s Central Avenue scene in Los Angeles. In his early years, Morgan played with Bird, Miles, and West Coast mainstays such as Wardell ...

Frank Morgan

by Brandt Reiter
August 9, 2004

A young acolyte of Charlie Parker, the Minneapolis-born alto saxophonist Frank Morgan saw his first leader's disc, the eponymous Frank Morgan (GNP), released in 1955; three decades would pass until he cut his second. Much of the time in between--20 years, by his own estimation--was spent in prison, on various drug-related charges (unfortunately Morgan had absorbed not only Bird's musical language but his heroin-fueled lifestyle as well). Last paroled in 1985, Morgan returned to the scene with that year's acclaimed ...