Jazz Articles about Lee Morgan

Lee Morgan: The Gigolo

by Samuel Chell
February 26, 2007

Lee Morgan The Gigolo Blue Note Records 2007

As we observe the 35th anniversary (Feb. 19) of the death of the talented trumpeter who would also become the major player in one of American music's more noteworthy Frankie and Johnny stories, the title of this Lee Morgan session and several others (The Tom Cat, The Rajah, The Procrastinator) take on a note of eponymous self-characterization, if not ghoulishly ironic subtext. Regrettable or not, the ...

Lee Morgan: City Lights

by John Barron
February 24, 2007

In an era of oversaturation in jazz characterized by an abundance of young performers who seem to favor imitation at the expense of originality, it's invigorating to hear a timeless gem like City Lights. It's hard to contemplate the fact that this music was recorded half a century ago. The precision and inventiveness of Lee Morgan and company still sounds fresh and as hip as anything being recorded today. More than just a blowing session, which was typical of so ...

Lee Morgan: Tom Cat

by Samuel Chell
February 20, 2007

As a cat owner, I've learned the hard way that the outdoor variety of felines quickly exhaust their nine lives. Lee Morgan's Tom Cat must be the exception. Recorded in 1964, the session was first released in 1981 (too late, even, to count as “posthumous"), before its most recent reincarnation as an RVG remaster. Blue Note's reason for originally holding back the date is somewhat of a mystery, since besides the catchy title track it's a session featuring a strong ...

Lee Morgan: City Lights

by Samuel Chell
February 6, 2007

This album may not enjoy the same status as Charlie Chaplin's revered movie of the same title, but it's a session that evokes similar feelings. Like the beloved Tramp, Lee Morgan wins our respect with a performance of exceptional warmth and dignity, grace and beauty, sprinkled with moments of gentle humor. His playing on this session anticipates, more than do his immediately subsequent recordings, the composer of the sublimely poetic “Ceora" (Cornbread, 1965).

Also credit Benny Golson, who ...

Lee Morgan: The Cooker

by Samuel Chell
January 29, 2007

Although Lee Morgan had already made a handful of albums at the age of 19, The Cooker (1957) represents his throwing down the gauntlet as successor to Clifford Brown's vacated throne. It's close to being a pure bebop session, suggestive of a date like For Musicians Only (Verve, 1956), on which Gillespie, Stitt and Getz set some sort of record for NPS (notes per second). At the same time, the precocious trumpeter, already brimming with confidence, is not about to ...

Lee Morgan: City Lights

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 19, 2007

È benvenuta la ristampa di uno tra i dischi meno conosciuti di Lee Morgan, per l’occasione spalleggiato da una fantastica front-line: George Coleman al sax tenore e Curtis Fuller al trombone. Con una ritmica tanto vigorosa quanto fluida, che vede impegnati Ray Bryant al pianoforte, Paul Chambers al contrabbasso ed Art Taylor alla batteria. Due sono le novità per questa quarta incisione (1957) morganiana per la label statunitense: l’allargamento della front-line da due a tre strumenti e una maggior varietà ...

Lee Morgan: Music for Lovers

by Norman Weinstein
March 10, 2006

Although annotator Donald Elfman deftly deflects the issue in his concise booklet essay, Lee Morgan was shot to death by his lover, certainly adding an irony to this disc's title, not to mention the additional irony that the compilation includes “Since I Fell For You." That might seem a minor marketing gaff, but there are fascinating ramifications. Perhaps Morgan was the supreme trumpeter of love gone south, and the kind of love that seemed most successful, in terms of the ...