| By the time he was 15, Morgan was leading his own group with bassist James "Spanky" DeBrest as his partner. He was also taking part in Tuesday night workshops at the Music City club, which brought him into early contact with Miles Davis and his primary early influence, Clifford Brown. After Morgan graduated from Mastbaum in 1956, he and DeBrest subbed with the Jazz Messengers when Art Blakey arrived in Philadelphia short two musicians. "Spanky stayed on," Morgan explained in the liner notes to his first Blue Note album. "I could have stayed too, but I didn't want to sign a contract, so I left after two weeks. Very soon after that, Dizzy Gillespie returned from his South American tour. Morgan's career took off when he joined Dizzy’s big band at the age of 17.
Dizzy was always a generous teacher, and allowed his young protégé plenty of solo space. This provided Morgan an excellent opportunity to gain experience before his return to Blakey's group in 1958 after Dizzy’s group disbanded. That year he recorded, Candy, his first of twenty-five Blue Note recordings as a leader, and though he was only 18 at the time, Morgan had already attracted attention with brassy acrobatic solos that heralded the arrival of a significant, new talent. While working with the Jazz Messengers, Morgan formed a great partnership with tenorist Benny Golson, and their shared sense of timing and musical rapport is obvious on the album Moanin', both on the title track and on numbers such as Blues March. Morgan shared the Messengers frontline with Golson, Hank Mobley and then Wayne Shorter until a heroin problem forced him to leave the band in 1961, (when he was replaced by Freddie Hubbard).
He returned to his native Philadelphia for a few years, where he maintained a low profile while battling his addiction, working occasionally with saxophonist Jimmy Heath. He returned to New York in 1963, where he recorded, The Sidewinder, on the Blue Note label with sideman Joe Henderson, This was Morgan’s greatest commercial success. He entered his greatest period, recording one memorable album after another, writing "Ceora" and "Speedball" and spending a second period with Blakey (1964-65).
He also recorded widely as a sideman on many classic jazz albums such as Gillespie's Night In Tunisia, John Coltrane's Blue Trane, Grachan Moncur's Evolution and dates for others, including Curtis Fuller, Philly Joe Jones, Wynton Kelly, Clifford Jordan, Hank Mobley and Wayne Shorter. Morgan was as comfortable unleashing dynamic displays of instrumental virtuosity on triple time blues as he was displaying controlled sensitivity and passion on ballads. His style included elements drawn from Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown, but his own wide, crackling tone, his use of bluesy phrasing and effects, searing high register, human-voiced half-valve effects, and his dancing, funky, timing, was the essence of hard-bop.
Morgan's later bands featured Bennie Maupin or Billy Harper on saxophone, and while the modal jazz direction taken by many other bands became more prominent in his compositions, Morgan remained at heart a hard-bop trumpet player.
Lee Morgan’s fast lane lifestyle ended on February 19, 1972, when he was shot dead by his common-law wife, Helen More, during a performance at Slug's in New York, ending his life at the age of 33.
In 1991, Lee Morgan was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.
READ THE INTERVIEW WITH HELEN MORGAN, LEE'S COMMON LAW WIFE AND SLAYER
Selected Discography
Introducing Lee Morgan (Savoy 1956)
Lee Morgan Indeed! (Blue Note 1957)
Lee Morgan, Volume 2 (Blue Note 1957)
Lee Morgan, Volume 3 (Blue Note 1957)
Hank Mobley With Donald Byrd And Lee Morgan (Blue Note 1957)
City Lights (Blue Note 1958)
The Cooker (Blue Note 1958)
Candy (Blue Note 1959)
Lee-Way (Blue Note 1960)
Here's Lee Morgan (Vee Jay 1960)
Expoobident (Vee Jay 1960)
Indestructible Lee (Affinity 1960)
Take Twelve (Jazzland 1962)
The Sidewinder (Blue Note 1963)
Search For The New Land (Blue Note 1964)
Tom Cat (Blue Note 1964)
Cornbread (Blue Note 1965)
The Rumproller (Blue Note 1965)
Lee Morgan Quintet (Vee Jay 1965)
The Gigolo (Blue Note 1965)
Delightfulee Morgan (Blue Note 1966)
Charisma (Blue Note 1966)
The Rajah (Blue Note 1966)
The Procrastinator (Blue Note 1967)
Caramba (Blue Note 1968)
The Sixth Sense (Blue Note 1969)
Live At The Lighthouse (Fresh Sound 1970)
Capra Beach (1971)
Lee Morgan (Blue Note 1972)
We Remember You (Fresh Sound 1972)
Live At The Lighthouse 3-CD reissue (Blue Note 1996)
Standards 1967 recording (Blue Note 1998)
Compilations:
The Complete Fifties Blue Note Lee Morgan Sessions 4-CD/6-LP box set (Mosaic 1996)
Jazz Profile (Blue Note 1997)
Visit JazzDisco.org for a complete Discography and Session Listing. |
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