Artist: Lee Morgan Genre(s):
Jazz
Other
Discography:
Lee Morgan Indeed! Year: 2004
Tracks: 6
Candy Year: 1990
Tracks: 5
Search For New Land Year: 1964
Tracks: 5
A cornerstone of the Blue Note label roll prior to his tragical demise, Lee Morgan was one of surd bop's sterling trumpeters, and so one of the finest of the '60s. An all-around master of his instrument sculpturesque later on Clifford Brown, Morgan boasted an effortless, virtuosic proficiency and a wide-cut, lithesome, muscular tone that was just as potent in the senior high school register. His acting was always emotionally charged, regardless of the specific temper: cocky and exuberant on up-tempo groovers, red-hot on bop-oriented technical showcases, sweet and sensitive on ballads. In his early days as a adolescent prodigy, Morgan was a busy soloist with a taste for long, graceful lines, and honed his personal style spell serving an apprenticeship in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. As his original compositions began to take in elements of blues and R&B, he made greater use of infinite and developed an contagiously foul rhythmical sense. He as well ground shipway to mimicker human vocal inflections by stuttering, slurring his articulations, and employing half-valved sound effects. Toward the end of his life history, Morgan was progressively moving into modal music and disengage bop, hinting at the van merely left grounded in tradition. He had already get the best a dangerous drug addiction, only sadly, he would non hot to uphold his musical increase; he was blastoff to death by his common law married woman in 1972.Edward V Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia on July 10, 1938. He grew up a malarkey lover, and his sister ostensibly gave him his number one trumpet at historic period 14. He took private lessons, developing speedily, and continued his studies at Mastbaum High School. By the time he was 15, he was already acting professionally on the weekends, co-leading a grouping with bassist Spanky DeBrest. Morgan likewise participated in weekly workshops that gave him the luck to meet the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and his graven image Clifford Brown. After graduating from high schooling in 1956, Morgan -- on with DeBrest -- got the chance to perform with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers when they swung through Philadelphia. Not long after, Dizzy Gillespie hired Morgan to replace Joe Gordon in his heavy circle, and afforded the talented small fry plenty of opportunities to solo, often spotlighting him on the Gillespie signature piece "A Night in Tunisia." Clifford Brown's dying in a car crash in June 1956 sparked a hunt for his heir apparent, and the precocious Morgan seemed a likely prospect to many; consequently, he shortly establish himself in expectant take as a recording artist. His first seance as a leader was cut for Blue Note in November 1956, and over the next few months he recorded for Savoy and Specialty as well, ofttimes working closely with Hank Mobley or Benny Golson. Later in 1957, he performed as a sideman on John Coltrane's classical
Dingy Train, as well as with Jimmy Smith.Morgan's early sessions showed him to be a talented technician wHO had his influences down pat, merely subsequent dates found him advent into his own as a classifiable, original hairdresser. That was to the highest degree apparent on the Blue Note classical
Confect, a ardent standards album completed in 1958 and released to big spat. Still only 19, Morgan's playing was still imbued with youthful enthusiasm, merely he was likewise synthesizing his influences into an original healthy of his possess. Also in 1958, Gillespie's heavy circle skint up, and Morgan shortly coupled the third gear version of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, which debuted on the classical
Moanin' album by and by that year. As a loss leader, Morgan recorded a mate of albums for Vee Jay in 1960,
Here's Lee Morgan and
Expoobident, and reduce some other for Blue Note that year, Leeway, with backup by many of the Jazz Messengers. None managed to step up to
Confect, and Morgan, rassling with diacetylmorphine addiction, wound up going the Jazz Messengers in 1961. He returned to his hometown of Philadelphia to kick the habit, and exhausted most of the next deuce days away from music, working on occasion with saxist Jimmy Heath on a local footing. His replacement in the Jazz Messengers was Freddie Hubbard, wHO would as well become one of the top unvoiced bop trumpeters of the '60s.Thomas Hunt Morgan returned to New York in late 1963, and recorded with Blue Note avant-gardist Grachan Moncur on the trombonist's debut
Organic evolution. He so recorded a riposte LP for Blue Note called
The Sidewinder, conspicuously featuring the gumptious Joe Henderson. The Morgan-composed title of respect rail was a funky, danceable groover that drew from soul-jazz, Latin boogaloo, vapors, and R&B in addition to Morgan's trademark hard federal Bureau of Prisons. It was rather unlike anything else he'd hack, and it became a left field hit in 1964; emended depressed to a 45 rev individual, it inched onto the turn down reaches of the pop charts, and was commissioned for manipulation in a high profile motorcar ad military campaign. Its success helped crowd
The Sidewinder into the Top 25 of the pop LP charts, and the Top Ten on the R&B list. Sales were fresh sufficiency to revivify the financially struggling Blue Note judge, and likely unbroken it from bankruptcy; it also lED to numerous "Sidewinder"vogue grooves pop up on other Blue Note artists' albums. By the time "The Sidewinder" became a phenomenon, Morgan had rejoined the Jazz Messengers, where he would remain until 1965; on that point he coagulated a longstanding partnership with saxist Wayne Shorter.Morgan followed the most crucial recording of his vocation with the splendid, more abstract
Search for the New Land, which was cut in early 1964, earlier "The Sidewinder" hit. An innovative modal federal Bureau of Prisons session called
Tomcat Cat was also recorded soon thereafter, just both were shelved in hopes of marking some other "Sidewinder." Accordingly, Morgan re-entered the studio apartment in early 1965 to cut
The Rumproller, whose Andrew Hill-penned title cut worked territory that was highly similar to Morgan's jailbreak strike. Commercial lightning didn't strike twice, only Morgan continued to platter prolifically through 1965, cut splendid roger Huntington Sessions like
The Gigolo,
Cornbread, and the unissued
Infinity.
The Gigolo introduced one of Morgan's best-known originals, the bluesy "Speedball," patch the hellenic
Cornbread featured his lay masterpiece "Ceora."
Search for the New Land was in the end issued in 1966, and it achieved highly goodly sales, stretch the Top 20 of the R&B album charts; both
Cornbread and
The Gigolo would sell well among jazz audiences when they were released in 1967 and 1968, respectively.By the clip Morgan completed those albums, he had left the Jazz Messengers to start preeminent his possess groups outside the studio. He was also coming into court ofttimes as a sideman on other Blue Note releases, working most often with tenorman Hank Mobley. Morgan was inordinately fertile over 1966-1968, cut around eight albums' worth of material (though not all of it was released at the time). Highlights included
Delightfulee,
The Procrastinator, and the decent-selling
Caramba!, which virtually made the Top 40 of the R&B album chart. His compositions were more and more modal and free morpheme, stretching the boundaries of operose bebop; however, his funkier instincts were noneffervescent patent as well, shifting bit by bit from boogaloo to early electrified fusion. Morgan's recording stride tailed off at the final stage of the '60s, only he continued to spell with a regular working grouping that conspicuously featured saxophonist Bennie Maupin. This band's lengthy modal explorations were documented on the double LP
Live at the Lighthouse, recorded in Los Angeles in July 1970; it was by and by reissued as a three-CD set with a generous amount of extra material. Morgan light-emitting diode what turned out to be the last session of his life in September 1971. On February 19, 1972, Morgan was playacting at the New York clubhouse Slug's when he was stroke and killed by his precedent wife, Helen More. Accounts of on the nose what happened depart; whether they argued over drugs or Morgan's fidelity, whether she shooter him outside the club or up on the stand in front of the hearing, jazz lost a major gift. Despite his all-encompassing recorded bequest, Morgan was only 33 years old. Many of his unreleased Blue Note roger Huntington Sessions began to seem in the other '80s, and his critical standing has scarcely diminished a smidgeon.
