Results for "lee morgan"

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin'

by Chris May
April 3, 2020

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man or woman in possession of a good quantity of Art Blakey albums, must be in want of a lot more. Previously unreleased albums are particularly enticing. So do not be fooled by the Reid Miles-inspired cover of Just Coolin': the disc is previously unissued. It presents Blakey ...

Harold Mabern: Mabern Plays Mabern

by Mike Jurkovic
March 18, 2020

A tad more subdued than the barn-burning The Iron Man: Live At Smoke (Smoke Sessions Records, 2019), Mabern Plays Mabern still manages to jump full throttle from where that defining recording left us, with a lush, lyrical intensity and a vital, legacy-culling energy which plays as an exquisite coda to the pianist's long, outstanding career.

The Arrival of Joe Henderson (1963 - 1967)

by Russell Perry
March 10, 2020

Joe Henderson may have been the most significant tenor saxophonist to emerge in the 1960s. Gary Giddins wrote that he is ..."an irresistibly lucid player, whose adroitness in conjuring stark and swirling riffs contributed immeasurably to two of the most durable jazz hits of the '60s, Horace Silver's 'Song for My Father' and Lee Morgan's 'The ...

Tina Brooks Quintet: The Complete Recordings

by Chris May
March 9, 2020

Mosaic Records' spring 2020 release The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70, the second of the label's box sets devoted to the copiously recorded (and rightly so) Hank Mobley, prompts thoughts of another of Blue Note's singular hard-bop tenor saxophone stylists. Unlike Mobley, Tina Brooks was woefully under-recorded, making just four albums under his own ...

Hank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70

by C. Andrew Hovan
March 8, 2020

The music world has changed considerably since Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie founded their boutique reissue label Mosaic Records back in 1983. From its inception, vinyl was still the preferred format, shortly to be overtaken by the popularity of the compact disc. At the cusp of vinyl's recent resurgence, Mosaic briefly got back into that format ...

Eric Alexander, Steve Davis, John Swana and the Philly All-Stars: Chris’ Jazz Cafe

by Victor L. Schermer
February 28, 2020

Eric Alexander, Steve Davis, John Swana and the Philly All-Stars Chris' Jazz Café Philadelphia, PA February 22, 2020 This first set on the second night of a two night stand with a packed house featured three superb and well-known hard bop masters backed by a local rhythm section ...

John Bailey: Can You Imagine?

by Jack Bowers
February 28, 2020

Letting his imagination roam free, trumpeter John Bailey envisions a world in which one of his musical touchstones, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, is president of the United States--one in which Gillespie's cabinet includes Duke Ellington (secretary of state), Louis Armstrong (secretary of agriculture) and Miles Davis (CIA director). The fact is, Gillespie did “run" for president in ...

Jonathan Goldman: Bump and Let It Slide

by Chris M. Slawecki
February 27, 2020

On Saturday February 29, Spanglish Fly will celebrate completing their tenth full year as America's leading producer and exporter of the wicked hot musical sauce known as Latin boogaloo with a special anniversary performance hosted by the legendary Brooklyn hotspot Barbes. The quintessential musical melting pot Spanglish Fly features musicians with roots in Puerto ...

Lee Morgan: The Sidewinder

by Greg Simmons
February 13, 2020

Legend tells us that 1964's The Sidewinder was the album, and indeed the song, which saved Blue Note Records at a time when the label was struggling financially. Dashed off to fill some tape, at the end of the recording session, it peaked at number 25 on the Billboard charts—almost unheard of for a hard-bop record—stabilizing ...

Lee Morgan

Born: July 10, 1938

Lee Morgan was a jazz prodigy, joining the Dizzy Gillespie big band at 18, remaining a member for two years. Beginning in 1956, he began recording as a leader, mainly for the Blue Note label, eventually he recorded twenty-five albums for the company. Morgan's principal influence as a player was Clifford Brown, having had direct contact with him before Brown's premature death.

He was also a featured sideman on several early Hank Mobley records, and John Coltrane's Blue Train. On the latter LP, he even played a bent-up horn like Gillespie's. Joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1958 further developed his talent as a soloist and writer. He toured with Blakey for a few years, and was featured on Moanin, which is probably Blakey's best known recording. When Benny Golson left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hire Wayne Shorter, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. This classic version of the Jazz Messengers, including Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt would record the classic The Freedom Rider album.