Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

trumpeter and composer. One of the key

hard bop Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...

musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raise ...

's '' Blue Train'' (1957) and with the band of drummer Art Blakey before launching a solo career. Morgan stayed with Blakey until 1961 and started to record as leader in the late '50s. His song " The Sidewinder", on the album of the same name, became a surprise crossover hit on the pop and R&B charts in 1964, while Morgan's subsequent recordings found him touching on other styles of music such as

post-bop Post-bop is a genre of small-combo jazz that evolved in the early to mid 1960s in the United States. Pioneers of the genre, such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, John Coltrane and Jackie McLean, crafted syntheses ...

and

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Ori ...

as his artistry matured. Soon after '' The Sidewinder'' was released, Morgan rejoined Blakey for a short period. After leaving Blakey for the final time, Morgan continued to work prolifically as both a leader and a sideman with the likes of Hank Mobley and

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...

, becoming a cornerstone of the

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...

label. Morgan died at the age of 33 when his common-law wife Helen Morgan shot and killed him following a confrontation at Slugs' Saloon, in New York City.

Biography

Edward Lee Morgan was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, United States, on July 10, 1938, the youngest of Otto Ricardo and Nettie Beatrice Morgan's four children. Originally interested in the

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

, he soon showed a growing enthusiasm for the trumpet. Morgan also knew how to play the alto saxophone. On his thirteenth birthday, his sister Ernestine gave him his first trumpet. His primary stylistic influence was Clifford Brown, with whom he took a few lessons as a teenager. Morgan recorded prolifically from 1956 until a day before his death in February 1972. He joined Dizzy 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. Morgan began recording for

in 1956, eventually recording 25 albums as a leader for the label. He also recorded on the Vee-Jay label and one album for

Riverside Records Riverside Records was an American jazz record company and label. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr, under his firm Bill Grauer Productions in 1953, the label played an important role in the jazz record industry for a decade. Riverside ...

on its short-lived Jazzland subsidiary. He was a featured sideman on several early Hank Mobley records, and intermittently thereafter. On

's '' Blue Train'' (1957), Morgan played a trumpet with an angled bell given to him by Gillespie. Joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1958, Morgan further developed his talent as a soloist and composer. He toured with Blakey for a few years, and was featured on numerous albums by the Messengers, including ''

Moanin' ''Moanin'' (originally titled ''Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers'') is a jazz album by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers recorded in 1958 for the Blue Note label and released in 1959. Background This was Blakey's first album for Blue Note ...

'', which is one of the band's best-known recordings. When Benny Golson left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hire

, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. This version of the Jazz Messengers, including pianist

Bobby Timmons Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He was a sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two periods (July 1958 to September 1959; February 1960 to June 1961), between which he wa ...

and bassist

Jymie Merritt Jymie Merritt (May 3, 1926 – April 10, 2020) was an American jazz double-bassist, electric-bass pioneer, band leader and composer. Merritt was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers group from 1957 until 1962. The same year he left Blakey's b ...

, recorded many albums during 1959–61, including for Blue Note '' Africaine,'' '' The Big Beat'', '' ''A Night in Tunisia'' and '' The 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. According to Tom Perchard, a Morgan biographer, it was Blakey who introduced the trumpeter to heroin, which impeded progression in his career. Lee Morgan (1959)

On returning to New York in 1963, he recorded '' The Sidewinder''. The title track cracked the pop chart in 1964McMillan, Jeffery S. (2008) ''DelightfuLee: The Life and Music of Lee Morgan''. University of Michigan Press. p. 135 and served as the background theme for Chrysler television commercials during the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

.Perchard, Tom (2006) ''Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture'', Equinox, p. 159 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. 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 album '' Cornbread'') and "Yes I Can, No You Can't" on '' The Gigolo''. According to drummer Billy 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 on Grachan Moncur III's essentially avant-garde ''Evolution'' album, recorded a month earlier, on November 21, 1963. After this commercial success, Morgan continued to record prolifically, producing such works as ''

Search for the New Land ''Search for the New Land'' is an album by jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan. A set with a group of regular Blue Note sidemen, ''Search for the New Land'' was recorded before ''The Sidewinder'' was released. Although it was recorded in 1964, the album w ...

'' (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 saxophonist John Gilmore, pianist

John Hicks Sir John Richards Hicks (8 April 1904 – 20 May 1989) was a British economist. He is considered one of the most important and influential economists of the twentieth century. The most familiar of his many contributions in the field of economi ...

, and bassist Victor Sproles, this lineup was filmed by the BBC for seminal jazz television program ''

Jazz 625 ''Jazz 625'' is a BBC jazz programme featuring performances by British and American musicians, first broadcast between April 1964 and August 1966. It was created by Terry Henebery, a clarinetist recruited in 1963 as one of the new producers fo ...

''. 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's ''

Night Dreamer ''Night Dreamer'' is the fourth album by American jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter. It was released in November 1964 by Blue Note Records. With a quintet of trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Elvin Jones ...

'';

Stanley Turrentine Stanley William Turrentine (April 5, 1934 – September 12, 2000) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He began his career playing R&B for Earl Bostic and later soul jazz recording for the Blue Note label from 1960, touched on jazz fusion ...

's ''Mr. Natural''; Freddie Hubbard's '' The Night of the Cookers''; Hank Mobley's '' Dippin''', '' A Caddy for Daddy'', '' A Slice of the Top'', '' Straight No Filter'';

Jackie McLean John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...

's ''Jackknife'' and ''Consequence''; Joe Henderson's '' Mode for Joe'';

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (from 1960 to 1965) and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Gram ...

's '' Tender Moments''; Lonnie Smith's ''Think'' and ''Turning Point'';

Elvin Jones Elvin Ray Jones (September 9, 1927 – May 18, 2004) was an American jazz drummer of the post-bop era. Most famously a member of John Coltrane's quartet, with whom he recorded from late 1960 to late 1965, Jones appeared on such widely celebrate ...

' ''The Prime Element''; Jack Wilson's ''Easterly Winds''; Reuben Wilson's ''Love Bug''; Larry Young's ''Mother Ship''; ''Lee Morgan and Clifford Jordan Live in Baltimore 1968''; Andrew Hill's ''Grass 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 players Billy Harper or Bennie Maupin, pianist

Harold Mabern Harold Mabern Jr. (March 20, 1936 – September 17, 2019) was an American jazz pianist and composer, principally in the hard bop, post-bop, and soul jazz fields.Feather, Leonard; Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. p. 4 ...

, bassist Jymie Merritt and drummers Mickey Roker or

Freddie Waits Frederick "Freddie" Douglas Waits (April 27, 1943 – November 18, 1989) was a hard bop and post-bop drummer. Waits never officially recorded as leader, but was a prominent member and composer in Max Roach's M'Boom percussion ensemble. He work ...

. 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.

Death and legacy

Morgan was killed in the early hours of February 19, 1972, at Slugs' Saloon, a jazz club in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

's East Village where his band was performing. Following an altercation between sets, Morgan's common-law wife Helen Moore (a.k.a. Helen Morgan) 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. He was 33 years old. Helen Morgan was arrested and spent a short time in prison before being released on parole. After her release, she returned to her native

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

and died there from a heart condition in March 1996. Lee and Helen Morgan are the subjects of a 2016 documentary '' I Called Him Morgan'' by Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin. The film premiered on September 1, 2016, at the 73rd Venice Film Festival and was theatrically released in the U.S. on March 24, 2017. In his ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' review A. O. Scott called the film "a delicate human drama about love, ambition and the glories of music".

Discography

References

External links

Masaya Matsumura's Lee Morgan Discography siteLee Morgan discography
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Lee Morgan playing his famous "Ceora" ballad
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Lee 1938 births 1972 deaths 20th-century American musicians American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters Bebop trumpeters Hard bop trumpeters The Jazz Messengers members Murdered African-American people American murder victims People murdered in New York City Male murder victims Musicians from Philadelphia Savoy Records artists Vee-Jay Records artists Riverside Records artists Blue Note Records artists Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania American male jazz musicians 20th-century American male musicians Deaths by firearm in Manhattan

Biography

Death and legacy

Discography

Further reading

References

External links