Lee Morgan | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Morgan in 1959 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Edward Lee Morgan |
| Born | (1938-07-10)July 10, 1938 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | February 19, 1972(1972-02-19) (aged 33) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1956–1972 |
| Labels | |
| Formerly of | The Jazz Messengers |
Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an Americanjazz trumpeter and composer.[1][2][3] One of the keyhard bop musicians of the 1960s and a cornerstone of theBlue Note label,[1] Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording with bandleaders likeJohn Coltrane,Curtis Fuller,Dizzy Gillespie,Hank Mobley andWayne Shorter, and playing inArt Blakey'sJazz Messengers.
Morgan stayed with Blakey until 1961 and started to record as leader in the late '50s. Morgan's solo recordings often alternated between conventional hard bop sessions and more adventurouspost-bop andavant-garde experiments, many of which did not see release during his lifetime. His composition "The Sidewinder", on thealbum of the same name, became a surprise crossover hit on the pop and R&B charts in 1964. After a second stint in Blakey's band, Morgan continued to work prolifically as both a leader and a sideman until his death in 1972.[4]
Edward Lee Morgan was born inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, on July 10, 1938, the youngest of Otto Ricardo and Nettie Beatrice Morgan's four children.[5]
Originally interested in thevibraphone, he soon showed a growing enthusiasm for the trumpet. Morgan could also play thealto saxophone. On his thirteenth birthday, his sister Ernestine gave him his first trumpet. His primary stylistic influence wasClifford Brown, with whom he took a few lessons as a teenager.[citation needed]
Morgan recorded prolifically from 1956 until a day before his death in February 1972. He joinedDizzy Gillespie's Big Band at 18 and remained as a member for a year and a half until economic circumstances forced Gillespie to disband the unit in 1958.[6] Morgan began recording forBlue Note in 1956, eventually recording 25 albums as a leader for the label. He also recorded on theVee-Jay label and one album forRiverside Records on its short-lived Jazzland subsidiary. He was a featured sideman on several earlyHank Mobley records, and intermittently thereafter. OnJohn Coltrane'sBlue Train (1957), Morgan played a trumpet with an angled bell given to him by Gillespie.
JoiningArt Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1958, Morgan further developed his talent as a soloist and composer.[6] He toured with Blakey for a few years,[6] and was featured on numerous albums by the Messengers, includingMoanin', which is one of the band's best-known recordings. WhenBenny Golson left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hireWayne Shorter, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. This version of the Jazz Messengers, including pianistBobby Timmons and bassistJymie Merritt, recorded many albums during 1959–61, including for Blue NoteAfricaine,The Big Beat,A Night in Tunisia andThe Freedom Rider. During his time with The Jazz Messengers, Morgan also wrote several tunes including "The Midget", "Haina", "Celine", "Yama," "Kozo's Waltz", "Pisces", and "Blue Lace." The drug problems of Morgan and Timmons forced them to leave the band in 1961, and the trumpeter returned to Philadelphia, his hometown.[6] According to Tom Perchard, a Morgan biographer, it was Blakey who introduced the trumpeter to heroin, which impeded progression in his career. On returning to New York in 1963, he recordedThe Sidewinder. The title track cracked the pop chart in 1964[7] and served as the background theme forChrysler television commercials during theWorld Series.[8] The tune was used without Morgan's consent; after he threatened to sue, Chrysler agreed not to show the advertisement again and settled the case.[8] Due to the crossover success of "The Sidewinder" in a rapidly changing pop music market, Blue Note encouraged its other artists to emulate the tune's "boogaloo" beat. Morgan himself repeated the formula several times with compositions such as "Cornbread" (from the eponymous albumCornbread) and "Yes I Can, No You Can't" onThe Gigolo. According to drummerBilly Hart, Morgan said he had recorded "The Sidewinder" as filler for the album, and was bemused that it had turned into his biggest hit. He felt that his playing was much more advanced onGrachan Moncur III's essentially avant-gardeEvolution album, recorded a month earlier, on November 21, 1963.
After this commercial success, Morgan continued to record prolifically, producing such works asSearch for the New Land (1964), which reached the top 20 of the R&B charts. He also briefly rejoined the Jazz Messengers after his successor,Freddie Hubbard, joined another group. Together with tenor saxophonistJohn Gilmore, pianistJohn Hicks, and bassistVictor Sproles, this lineup was filmed by the BBC for seminal jazz television programJazz 625.
As the 1960s progressed, he recorded some twenty additional albums as a leader, and continued to record as a sideman on the albums of other artists, including Wayne Shorter'sNight Dreamer;Stanley Turrentine'sMr. Natural;Freddie Hubbard'sThe Night of the Cookers; Hank Mobley'sDippin',A Caddy for Daddy,A Slice of the Top,Straight No Filter;Jackie McLean'sJackknife andConsequence;Joe Henderson'sMode for Joe;McCoy Tyner'sTender Moments;Lonnie Smith'sThink andTurning Point;Elvin Jones'The Prime Element;Jack Wilson'sEasterly Winds;Reuben Wilson'sLove Bug;Larry Young'sMother Ship;Lee Morgan and Clifford Jordan Live in Baltimore 1968;Andrew Hill'sGrass Roots; as well as on several albums with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.
He became more politically involved in the last two years of his life, becoming one of the leaders of the Jazz and People's Movement. The group demonstrated during the taping of talk and variety shows during 1970-71 to protest the lack of jazz artists as guest performers and members of the programs' bands. His working band during those last years featured reed playersBilly Harper orBennie Maupin, pianistHarold Mabern, bassist Jymie Merritt and drummersMickey Roker orFreddie Waits. Maupin, Mabern, Merritt, and Roker are featured on the well-regarded three-disc,Live at the Lighthouse, recorded during a two-week engagement at the Hermosa Beach club, California, in July 1970.
Morgan was killed in the early hours of February 19, 1972, atSlugs' Saloon, a jazz club inNew York City'sEast Village where his band was performing.[9] Following an altercation between sets, Morgan's live-in girlfriend, Helen Moore, shot him. The injuries were not immediately fatal, but the ambulance was slow in arriving on the scene as the city had experienced heavy snowfall that resulted in extremely difficult driving conditions. They took so long to get there that Morgan bled to death.[10] He was 33 years old.[9] Moore was arrested and spent a short time in prison before being released on parole.[11] After her release, she returned to her nativeNorth Carolina and died there from a heart condition in March 1996.
Morgan and Moore are the subjects of a 2016 documentaryI Called Him Morgan by Swedish filmmakerKasper Collin.[12] The film premiered on September 1, 2016, at the73rd Venice Film Festival[13] and was theatrically released in the U.S. on March 24, 2017.[14] In hisNew York Times reviewA. O. Scott called the film "a delicate human drama about love, ambition and the glories of music".[15]
| Title | Year Recorded | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee Morgan Indeed! | 1956 | Blue Note | ||
| Introducing Lee Morgan | 1956 | Savoy | ||
| Lee Morgan Sextet | 1956 | Blue Note | ||
| Dizzy Atmosphere | 1957 | Specialty | ||
| Lee Morgan Vol. 3 | 1957 | Blue Note | ||
| City Lights | 1957 | Blue Note | ||
| The Cooker | 1957 (Released 1958) | Blue Note | ||
| Candy | 1958 | Blue Note | ||
| Peckin' Time | 1958 | Blue Note | ||
| Here's Lee Morgan | 1960 | Vee-Jay | ||
| The Young Lions | 1960 | Vee-Jay | ||
| Lee-Way | 1960 | Blue Note | ||
| Expoobident | 1960 | Vee-Jay | ||
| Take Twelve | 1962 | Jazzland | ||
| The Sidewinder | 1963 | Blue Note | ||
| Search for the New Land | 1964 (Released 1966) | Blue Note | ||
| Tom Cat | 1964 (Released 1980) | Blue Note | ||
| The Rumproller | 1965 | Blue Note | ||
| The Gigolo | 1965 (Released 1968) | Blue Note | ||
| Cornbread | 1965 (Released 1967) | Blue Note | ||
| Infinity | 1965 (Released 1981) | Blue Note | ||
| Delightfulee | 1966 | Blue Note | ||
| Charisma | 1966 (Released 1969) | Blue Note | ||
| The Rajah | 1966 (Released 1985) | Blue Note | ||
| Standards | 1967 (Released 1998) | Blue Note | ||
| Sonic Boom | 1967 (Released 1979) | Blue Note | ||
| The Procrastinator | 1967/1969 (Released 1978) | Blue Note | ||
| The Sixth Sense | 1967 (Released 1970) | Blue Note | ||
| Taru | 1968 (Released 1980) | Blue Note | ||
| Caramba! | 1968 | Blue Note | ||
| Live at the Lighthouse | 1970 | Blue Note | ||
| The Last Session | 1971 | Blue Note |
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