Lee Morgan Suggestions?

headshrinker2 · « **on:** 10 Oct 2011, 02:45 am »

I heard some Lee Morgan on the radio today that was fantastic. Suggestions for some of his best recordings?

PSB Guy · « **Reply #1 on:** 10 Oct 2011, 03:23 am »

I've always liked "The Sidewinder"

Cornelis

tubegroove · « **Reply #2 on:** 10 Oct 2011, 06:15 am »

The Sidewinder is a superb album - lively and LM plays very deftly. It sounds like they are having a lot of fun making that album. A good place to start ones collection, in my opinion

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #3 on:** 10 Oct 2011, 06:23 am »

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lee-morgan-p7175

etcarroll · « **Reply #4 on:** 10 Oct 2011, 09:53 am »

Candy
Search for the New Land
Cornbread

These 3, along with The Sidewinder, will give you a good start on a Lee Morgan collection. Also, he sits in on Coltranes 'Blue Train', his solo on the slow number on 2nd side, I think called 'I'm Old Fashioned That Way', was my "who's that on trumpet!" moment.

brother love · « **Reply #5 on:** 10 Oct 2011, 12:09 pm »

I agree w/ the others: Sidewinder would be my first suggestion It's got more soul & a groove to it than many others had during that early sixties time frame. I love it (listened to it the past weekend in fact).

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers had some highly regarded releases that are on a lot of best of jazz lists. Lee Morgan was one of the Jazz Messengers, & his trumpet was prominent in some of those recordings.

headshrinker2 · « **Reply #6 on:** 10 Oct 2011, 12:45 pm »

Thanks guys! Much appreciated.

coverto · « **Reply #7 on:** 11 Oct 2011, 01:28 am »

"Search for the New Land" is an extremely cool solo album, as is "Sidewinder." But his work on Coltrane's "Blue Trane" and especially "Moanin'" by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers must be heard to be believed. Personally, I'd start there.

rockadanny · « **Reply #8 on:** 11 Oct 2011, 02:20 am »

+1 coverto! Agree with all stated. Although I do feel "Search for the New Land" is essential.

coverto · « **Reply #9 on:** 11 Oct 2011, 03:23 am »

Rockadanny - agreed on "Search." One thing I really love about that album is Grant Green! He is laying down some really, really good lines there...

etcarroll · « **Reply #10 on:** 14 Oct 2011, 08:30 pm »

I recently acquired "The Procrastinator" on vinyl, it's pretty good too, not as good as the 3 I mentioned, maybe next tier down. I'd grab 'Lee-Way' at this level as well if you're out shopping for Lee's work.

Edit - The Cooker as well, up there with Candy. If for no other reason, a bitchin' version of A Night In Tunisia starts the record off.

DaveNote · « **Reply #11 on:** 16 Oct 2011, 01:04 am »

headshrinker2, after reading this thread, I've been listening to my small Lee Morgan collection. I haven't done this in a very long time, so I have rediscovered him, thanks to you. Much better than I had remembered him to be. I prefer his ballads to his other work. If you haven't heard it, try his "Standards" album. AMG Guide gave it a low rating, but I couldn't disagree more.

Dave

Sonny · « **Reply #12 on:** 16 Oct 2011, 01:11 am »

Quote from: PSB Guy on 10 Oct 2011, 03:23 am

I've always liked "The Sidewinder"

Cornelis

I think Sidewinder is my fav, but there's the Cooker, Cornbread, Lee Morgan self titled and many more!!

funkymas · « **Reply #13 on:** 22 Oct 2011, 10:29 pm »

Quote from: coverto on 11 Oct 2011, 01:28 am

"Search for the New Land" is an extremely cool solo album, as is "Sidewinder." But his work on Coltrane's "Blue Trane" and especially "Moanin'" by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers must be heard to be believed. Personally, I'd start there.

I agree. Lee Morgan was only in his late teens when he recorded Blue Trane with Coltrane. The Sidewinder is awesome too.

ArthurDent · « **Reply #14 on:** 22 Oct 2011, 10:32 pm »

You might check out his contributions on Jimmy Smith's Houseparty as well. Some pretty outstanding stuff.

Old timer · « **Reply #15 on:** 13 Nov 2011, 02:25 am »

"Candy", BLP-1590 and "Indeed" BLP-1538 are a nice place to start.

Lee was also a great sideman for Hank Mobley on BLP-1540 and on most of Art Blakey's albums.

etcarroll · « **Reply #16 on:** 19 Nov 2011, 10:23 pm »

Speaking of Art Blakey, I'm listening to Lee's work on the album 'Jazz Messengers', pretty sweet!

adamaley · « **Reply #17 on:** 30 Nov 2011, 02:44 am »

Leeway is my favorite followed by Cornbread and then Search for the Newland.

jazzster · « **Reply #18 on:** 1 Dec 2011, 03:11 am »

Leeway is also my favorite. Surprised no one mentioned Cooker. Check that out as well as Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers when he was part of Blakey's entourage in the late 50's. They're both my favorite artists during this hard bop era.

blutto · « **Reply #19 on:** 2 Dec 2011, 03:51 pm »

Quote from: DaveNote on 16 Oct 2011, 01:04 am

headshrinker2, after reading this thread, I've been listening to my small Lee Morgan collection. I haven't done this in a very long time, so I have rediscovered him, thanks to you. Much better than I had remembered him to be. I prefer his ballads to his other work. If you haven't heard it, try his "Standards" album. AMG Guide gave it a low rating, but I couldn't disagree more.

Dave

...don't mean to run this thread way off topic but there a point here I would like to expand on....and it goes thusly...

....for some reason I avoid jazz compilations but several years ago the BlueNote catalog was looked over pretty carefully and some very interesting comps came out ( some of stuff that either had no or very limited release or just themes that existed thru-out an artist's catalog but never explored in a single album setting )....

...the Standards releases are a great example of that...the Morgan example mentioned in the attached post is a great find but there are several others of note...the Grant Green Standards collection is awesome ( here the man actually plays chords instead of just picking notes and it really works out well )...the Ike Quebec Ballads collection is equally good...and the Ike Quebec 45's collection is wicked...

...so...bottom line...do try the Standards and Ballads collections...superb music...and often features music never easily found elsewhere...and these collections are also often remaindered so check the deletes sections of stores...

...and in a similar theme there is a comp called The Alternative Wes Montgomery wherein Wes plays stuff in tempos that he usually is not heard playing in...that is one of the things about Wes that annoys me...most of his stuff is in a few tempos only...and this gets old quickly..this was originally a Milestone comp that may or may not have made it to digital formats...worth looking for...easily my fave Wes...

...again....sorry for running off topic....

Cheers

blutto