Detective Superintendent Lee Morgan remembers exactly where he was when the first triple-0 call arrived, at dusk on June 4, 2019. “We get countless reports of gunshots that turned out to be fireworks,” he recalled. “The first assessment was, is it the middle of Darwin, who drops tricks?” But withinRead More →
Lee Morgan. Photo by Valerie Wilmer Lee Morgan, one of the most brilliant trumpeters of the 1950s, became another victim of the violent times we live in when he was murdered during an engagement at Slug’s, a jazz club in New York City, on February 19. Morgan was reportedly shotRead More →
Opening night at Slug’s 9 Avenue B, NY 10009 By Hannah Reimann GREG LEWIS ON SAX, Alphonso Horne on trumpet and Marty Jane on bass at Slug’s playing music by Lee Morgan. Photo credit: Hannah Reimann. Jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan (1938-1972) left a gripping legacy after his truncated 33-year life.Read More →
By Steve Proizer Prodigy, post-Parker junkie, died by homicide at a young age (1938-1972). No matter. The myth must not oust the player. Musically, Lee Morgan was a muthahfucka. Whatever influences he brought to the music – funk, modal, latin, free – Lee has always sounded like Lee and theRead More →
Who’s the fan of acclaimed San Diego trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos, jazz giants John Coltrane and Lee Morgan? So big that he estimates he owns at least 50 vinyl albums by each of them. So great that he can name the most obscure recordings that featured Morgan and Coltrane as sidemenRead More →
In 1970 Morgan recorded three shows at the Lighthouse Jazz Club in Hermosa Beach, California. A new box set captures Morgan and his band giving their own spin on Coltrane’s trance rehearsals. TERRY GROSS, HOST: It’s FRESH AIR. In July 1970, jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan recorded for three nights atRead More →
album review Lee Morgan – The Complete Live at the Lighthouse (from 1970) (Blue note. 8 CDs or 12 LPS. Album review by Olie Brice) by Lee Morgan Living at the Lighthouse was already a classic album, in its original double LP format, and then the longest 3-CD box setRead More →
Lee Morgan belongs to a line of brash, streetwise trumpet virtuosity that stretches from Louis Armstrong and Clifford Brown to present-day Christian Scott. Twenty-five albums and countless sideman sessions made him a mainstay on the Blue Note label, but above all he was a marvelous trumpeter. As label boss DonRead More →
It’s an enigma as old as live popular music itself. A veteran act wants to branch out, move forward and defy expectations, but fans want to hear from old favorites. It was the kind of challenge trumpeter Lee Morgan faced when he and his band played a two-week engagement atRead More →
“Live at the Lighthouse” was to be the start of a new chapter for Lee Morgan in 1970. As someone who hasn’t slowed down much since he first picked up the trumpet in his early teens and is become a star of the jazz scene of the 1960s. , theRead More →
Comment this story Comment “Live at the Lighthouse” was to be the start of a new chapter for Lee Morgan in 1970. As someone who hasn’t slowed down much since he first picked up the trumpet in his early teens and is become a star of the jazz scene ofRead More →
There were plenty of trumpeters in the 1960s, but the Big Four were Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd and Lee Morgan. Davis was most outwardly obsessed with innovation and constant forward movement: his 1965-68 quintet blew hard bop to smithereens, and while people were still absorbing that group’s ideas,Read More →
Nineteen months after the Lighthouse shows captured on the new box set, Lee Morgan has been shot. He was 33 years old.Joel Franklin “So we’ll just go on and do our usual thing,” trumpeter Lee Morgan announces before the first of four Friday night sets at the Lighthouse, a renownedRead More →
This could be the gift of the year for hard bop fans. Long considered one of the finest live albums in Blue Note’s historic catalog and the iconic trumpeter’s only live recording Lee Morgan as a frontman, his date at the Lighthouse in Hermosa Beach, California, July 10–12, 1970, wasRead More →
Lee Morgan, the incandescent trumpeter, led one of the greatest groups of the early 1970s – a short-lived but multi-faceted quintet, expansive in attitude and approach. With multi-reedist Bennie Maupin, pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Jymie Merritt and drummer Mickey Roker, this ensemble spent a productive weekend in Hermosa Beach, CaliforniaRead More →
Vinyl is back! Every month on “Vinyl Watch”, we list some of the most notable new vinyl releases – including new albums, reissues, special edition box sets and more. At JAZZIZ, we share the vinyl community’s appreciation of the experience of collecting and playing vinyl records. As more and moreRead More →
People often ask me for my opinion on what a good LP is to start getting into jazz. I mean, a lot of people have absorbed “Kind Of Blue” even if they don’t know it, and “A Love Supreme” might be a bit too much for a neophyte, so IRead More →
Blue Note Records has finally released details of the upcoming box set of Lee Morgan, cover the star Jazzwise 260 and is the subject of an in-depth article by Stuart Nicholson in the same issue. The late trumpet legend’s complete engagement (three nights, 12 sets) at the Lighthouse in HermosaRead More →
Jazz Week is your roundup of new and remarkable stories from the world of jazz. It’s a one-stop destination for music news you need to know. Let’s take it from the top. Remarkable The winners of the 2021 Blues Music Awards are announced: The Blues Foundation announced the winners ofRead More →
Lee Morgan – one of WBGO’s Top 100 Artists, selected by our listeners – was a trumpeter who fronted his share of combustible bands. When his Live at the lighthouse was first reissued in the United States in 1996, many listeners had their first encounter with his 1970 working group,Read More →
Blue Note Records has announced an extensive reissue of the historic double live album Living at the Lighthouse by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan. Expected release July 30 Lee Morgan: The Complete Live at the Lighthousepresents for the very first time the 12 sets of music the legendary trumpeter quintet featuringRead More →
Blue Note took a while to release this session but even after a three year delay the music sounds great. Morgan’s trumpet style was virtually fully formed by the time he was twenty and has remained virtually unchanged since then except to become slightly more economical and refined. Morgan isRead More →
Lee Morgan’s life, though short, was filled with tunes that influenced generations of jazz artists to come. A hugely talented jazz trumpeter, Morgan shot to fame as a teenager, recording on John Coltrane’s legendary Blue Train and drummer Art Blakey’s band before embarking on a solo career. But along theRead More →
On Friday July 10, 2020, Christian Lee Morgan’s journey on Earth ended and he went to join our Lord. Christian was born on September 26, 1997 in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from Troy High School. Christian loved his family and friends. Although calm, her heart was big. He wouldRead More →
The jazz collection has an archaeological aspect; it’s one of my favorite aspects of the hobby. More than most other genres, jazz evolved in its early decades, and it did so on record. Each musician was distinctive, changing from session to session, and interacting with other musicians in ways specificRead More →
Although historically the music on this album doesn’t carry the dawn of hard bop, it always felt like it. Morgan and Shorter were his first vocals in Blakey’s quintet. Art was a diviner when it came to creative players, and in Morgan and Shorter he hit the jackpot. Tragically, heRead More →
Despite his somewhat limited output and even shorter life, Lee Morgan is considered one of the greatest trumpeters in jazz history. It’s his story. On a freezing night in New York in 1967, one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time didn’t own a trumpet. He was in theRead More →
Rumprollerhere in a new vinyl reissue, was the sequel to Lee Morgan’s 1963 hit album The Sidewinder. Sidewinder actually reached number 35 in Billboard‘s Top 100 and Blue Note could barely keep up with the demand. It became his best-selling LP and Sidewinder was usedRead More →
Lee Morgan hadn’t even turned 20 when he ventured into Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on September 29, 1957, to record The Cook. Born in Philadelphia, Morgan (1938-1972) was a trumpeter prodigy who idolized Clifford Brown (the innovative hard bop horn blower who had died inRead More →
Philadelphia horn blower Lee Morgan had been with Blue note folders for nearly nine years when he recorded corn breadhis 12th album for the label, in a single session held on Saturday September 18, 1965. to listen corn bread now. Originally from Philadelphia, Morgan was a precociously talented trumpet prodigyRead More →
On a freezing night in 1967, trumpeter Lee Morgan didn’t even own a trumpet. He had left his horn and winter coat at the pawnshop, all for the purpose of scoring heroin. He was often seen sleeping on the sidewalk outside of Birdland in New York, sometimes without shoes onRead More →
The film I called him Morgan chronicles the rise and tragic fall of trumpeter Lee Morgan, who grew up in Philadelphia. WRTI’s Susan Lewis spoke with sax master Odean Pope about her memories of Morgan, who in his short life made a lasting contribution. SL_ADLF_171113_OdeanPopeonLeeMorgan_slTM.mp3 Sax master Odean Pope talksRead More →
Hear Morgan’s trumpet player Eddie Henderson November 3-4 at Lewers Lounge, then watch the Hawaii International Film Festival documentary “I Called Him Morgan” on November 5. Video and photos: Courtesy of the Honolulu International Film Festival ADirectors and directors make regular appearances at film festivals, but it’s rare to hearRead More →
Background photo courtesy of the Afro-American Newspaper Archives and Research Center Lee Morgan’s story as a promising and extraordinarily gifted trumpet player who was also a junkie seems like your typical piece of jazz tragedy, but his untimely death at age thirty-three did not come from an overdose. I calledRead More →
Kasper Collins’ film recently played as part of IDA’s documentary screening series. Jazz musician Lee Morgan was shot and killed in a jazz club in 1972 aged just 33 – by his wife, Helen Morgan. Kasper Collin brings the trumpet prodigy to life in the documentary ‘I Called Him Morgan’,Read More →
The main challenge in producing a documentary about jazz artists is choosing the best way to frame the story. How should a director talk about an artist’s life and music? Does the artist’s pure biography or mythology take precedence in the story? When it comes to music, a technical approachRead More →
Artistic, obsessive and intoxicating, “I Called Him Morgan” is a documentary with a creative soul, and that makes all the difference. It’s not just that it’s a haunting and deeply moving jazz tragedy, dealing with the life and untimely death in 1972 of legendary trumpeter Lee Morgan, who was shotRead More →
One snowy night in February 1972, Helen Morgan reached into her bag and pulled out the gun her husband, Lee, had bought for her. Lee, a 33-year-old jazz trumpeter who rose to fame as a teenager, was about to perform at Slug’s Saloon, a nightclub in New York’s East Village.Read More →
Leave it to a Swedish documentary filmmaker to uncover a nearly forgotten chapter in American jazz history: the brilliant life and ugly death of trumpeter Lee Morgan, shot by his common-law wife, Helen, between sets at Slug’s Saloon in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. in 1972. (Apparently she wasRead More →
FilmRise has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Swedish director Kasper Collin’s Lee Morgan documentary “I Called Him Morgan.” The documentary had its world premiere at the 2016 Venice International Film Festival, then screened at the Toronto, Telluride and New York film festivals. “I Called Him Morgan” will be released theatricallyRead More →
Staff report February 10, 2016 Kasimu Taylor, St. Louis-born jazz trumpeterKingtungsten Photography | For the Telegraph ST. LOUIS — A tribute to famed jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan will include songs from his album ‘The Sidewinder,’ as well as other compositions he wrote and performed. The concert will feature iconic MorganRead More →
Terell Stafford and his quintet bring a warm, heavy tone to a tribute album honoring the late Philadelphia horn player Lee Morgan. Kevin Whitehead says the new album is risky – but successful. TERRY GROSS, HOST: It’s FRESH AIR. Our jazz critic Kevin Whitehead has reviewed a new album byRead More →
Randy Brecker Lee Morgan has always been, ever since I first heard him when I was about 13, one of my absolute favorite players. We have a common history. We’re both from Philadelphia, and we had the same trumpet teacher, the amazing Tony Marchione, who first told me about LeeRead More →
BY MAT MARSHALL February 12, 2010 Log in to view the number of plays Lee Morgan Seek the New Earth Blue Note / Music Matters 2009 (1964) Backed by what may have been his most decidedly modern band, trumpeter Lee Morgan has indeed embarked on an exploratory quest in thisRead More →
BY MAT MARSHALL July 6, 2009 Log in to view the number of plays Lee Morgan Tom Cat Blue Note / Music Matters 2008 (1980) Tom Cat continues Music Matter’s program of re-releasing generally unavailable Blue Note sessions from the 1950s and 1960s on double 45 rpm vinyl albums. AsRead More →
DelightfuLee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan Jeffrey McMillan Cloth/Paper; 272 pages ISBN: 978-0-472-11502-0/978-0-472-03281-5 University of Michigan Press 2008 This is an excellent, well-written, well-researched, scholarly book about the life and music of one of jazz’s great unsung heroes – trumpeter Lee Morgan – who was shot and killedRead More →
Lee Morgan The gigolo Blue note folders 2007 As we celebrate the 35th anniversary (February 19) of the death of the talented trumpet player who would also become the major player in one of American music’s most defining stories Frankie and Johnny, the title of this session by Lee MorganRead More →
This album may not have the same status as Charlie Chaplin’s revered film of the same title, but it’s a session that evokes similar feelings. Like the beloved Tramp, Lee Morgan earns our respect with a performance of exceptional warmth and dignity, grace and beauty, peppered with moments of sweetRead More →
Although Lee Morgan had already made a handful of albums by the age of 19, The Cook (1957) depicts his throwing of the gauntlet as successor to Clifford Brown’s vacant throne. It’s close to being a pure bebop session, reminiscent of a date like Reserved for musicians (Verve, 1956), onRead More →