LEE MORGAN レコード& CD

Review: Blue Note's Tone Poet series looks to the legendary trumpet player Lee Morgan for its next focus reissue. The album is made up of four originals and alto sax player Jackie McLean's engaging ballad 'Portrait of Doll'. Drummer Billy Higgins was also involved in these sessions, which were recorded in 1965 in the Van Gelder Studio just a few weeks after Morgan recorded his sextet date Cornbread. The prolific trumpeter kept up the good form here with explorations of hard bop and beyond, including a hard hitting and probing title cut and the laid-back 6/8 groove of 'Miss Nettie B.'

Review: 1966 is when Lee Morgan laid down this immensely sleek and beautiful record for Blue Note, but it was shelved until, amazingly, 1984. Next to the trumpeter himself, the quintet here features Hank Mobley on tenor sax, plus Cedar Walton on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. They are all in fine fettle and the record has a number of standout tunes such as the Duke Pearson gem 'Is That So' and the lush title track by Morgan. This is another essential reissue from the on going Blue Note Tone Poet Series which paces high focus on the wealthy of each recording.

Review: Lee Morgan's The Sidewinder LP is actually a comeback record from one of Blue NOte's most regular and esteemed artists. A famously good hard bop trumpeter, he was a real master of his instrument who played with the Jazz Messengers as well as on his own, often as a tie man on various other fine Blue Note albums. This album came after he retuned to New York in late 1963 and was recorded with the up-and-coming Joe Henderson. It was an outlier to the rest of his catalogue and was a leftfield hit that was also used on a high-profile automobile ad campaign, thus helping to save the cash strapped Blue Note label itself.