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Hard Bop Trumpet - Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd (1960 - 1967)
In this portion of Jazz at 100, we are featuring tenor players and trumpeters who propelled hard bop into the 1960s. In this hour, we will continue with the Trumpet Players, Part 1, featuring three players who apprenticed in the Jazz Messengers: Lee Morgan—a Blue Note leader since 1956, Freddie Hubbard—who made his debut as a leader (also for Blue Note) in 1960 and Donald Byrd who recorded with everyone from Horace Silver to John Coltrane before becoming leader for ...
read moreI Called Him Morgan at Belfast Film Festival 2017
I Called Him Morgan (2016) A film by Kasper Collin Belfast Film Festival Strand Arts Centre, jny:Belfast, N. Ireland March 31, 2017 There was something appropriate about the screening of Kasper Collin's documentary I Called Him Morgan in the Strand Arts Centre. The furnishings of this old, art-deco cinema look little changed from the 1950s, when, on the other side of the Atlantic, trumpeter Lee Morgan burst onto the New York jazz scene ...
read moreI Called Him Morgan by Kasper Collin
Lee MorganI Called Him Morgan A film by Kasper Collin 2016 Forty five years ago on a precariously snowy night, prolifically talented jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan was fatally wounded at Slug's Saloon in the East Village of jny: New York City, shot down by his common-law wife, Helen, in front of horrified friends and fans at the bar of the venue. Kasper Collin's haunting documentary I Called Him Morgan is a revealing portrait of ...
read moreLee Morgan On Music Matters
Somewhere up in the sky there's a pantheon of jazz legends. Lee Morgan rightfully has a seat in the top tier, and the jam must be extraordinary. Morgan hit the scene in 1956, an obvious prodigy who'd scored two triumphs at the tender age of eighteen: a standing gig in Dizzy Gillespie's big band and the commencement of a prolific recording career as a leader for Blue Note Records. Following his first LP, Indeed, he went on to ...
read moreLee Morgan: The Sidewinder – 1964
What's left to say about Lee Morgan's most popular album, The Sidewinder? How about this: It is one FUN record. That's capital F, capital U, capital N. Anything wrong with that? Sometimes it feels like all the fun has gone out of jazz. As if nothing can be Good unless it is Serious. As if muted Miles and spiritual Trane are the ultimate barometers of true jazz respectability. Hey, I love Miles and Trane and all ...
read moreLee Morgan, Volume Three - 1957
In jazz, as in rock, there's a tendency to overlook composers. Performers get all the nods. Consider Duke Ellington. One of the greatest bandleaders and composers of all time. But Billy Strayhorn? Not as famous--even though he wrote some of Duke's best pieces: “Take the A Train" and “Lush Life" and “Chelsea Bridge." Or consider Dave Brubeck. Justly renowned as a leader, pianist and experimenter of odd tempos. But Paul Desmond? A pretty nifty saxman, but ...
read moreLee Morgan – Volume 2: Sextet – Blue Note 1542
No one ever bought a record for its weird song titles. (And if they did, Iron Butterfly's psychedelic rock classic In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida would be the best seller of all time.) But still, Lee Morgan Volume 2: Sextet deserves some kind of award in that category. First, there are two songs written by virtual unknown Owen Marshall. “Her Sister" makes you wonder two things: Whose sister? And what is she like? Sexy? Mysterious? Cool? Hard to tell from this tune, ...
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Contest Giveaway
ELIGIBLE WINNERS: 10 | DAYS REMAINING: 27
Prize: 10 copies of Rhythm Abstraction: Azure by Frank Macchia
Rhythm Abstraction: Azure is the first volume of new compositions created as a follow up to 2018’s release Rhythm Kaleidoscope. As with that release, Brock Avery improvised drum and percussion solos. Frank Macchia then composed music for woodwinds and orchestra to Brock’s creations. Azure is the first of three extended play albums of 6-7 compositions which will be released starting in January and followed up in April and July. In Azure we have a created a group of pieces that continue our quest for honoring the art of improvisation with a “stream-of-consciousness” sense of composition,...
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