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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

trumpeter and composer. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s and a cornerstone of the Blue Note label, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording with bandleaders like

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 Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

Curtis Fuller Curtis DuBois Fuller (December 15, 1932May 8, 2021) was an American jazz trombonist. He was a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and contributed to many classic jazz recordings. Early life Fuller was born in Detroit on December 15, 193 ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

, Hank Mobley and Wayne Shorter, and playing in

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

's Jazz 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 adventurous

post-bop Post-bop is a jazz term with several possible definitions and usages.Yudkin, Jeremy (2007), p. 125 It has been variously defined as a musical period, a musical genre, a musical style, and a body of music, sometimes in different chronological perio ...

and

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

experiments, many of which did not see release during his lifetime. His composition "

The Sidewinder ''The Sidewinder'' is a 1964 album by the jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan, recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, U.S. It was released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label as BLP 4157 (Monaural, mono) and BST 84157 ( ...

", on the album 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.

Biography

Edward Lee Morgan was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 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 (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

, he soon showed a growing enthusiasm for the trumpet. Morgan could also play the

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

. 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

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

's '' Blue Train'' (1958), Morgan played a trumpet with an angled bell given to him by Gillespie. Lee Morgan Jymie Merritt and Wayne Shorter

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''', which is one of the band's best-known recordings. When

Benny Golson Benny Golson (January 25, 1929 – September 21, 2024) was an American bebop and hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He came to prominence with the big bands of Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie, more as a writer than a p ...

left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hire Wayne Shorter, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. This version of the Jazz Messengers, including pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymie Merritt, 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. On returning to New York in 1963, he recorded ''

''. 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 FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

television commercials during the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

.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 Cornbread is a quick bread made with cornmeal, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, with origins in Native American cuisine. It is an example of batter bread. Dumplings and pancakes made with finely ground cornmeal are st ...

'') and "Yes I Can, No You Can't" on '' The Gigolo''. According to drummer

Billy Hart Billy Hart (born November 29, 1940) is an American jazz drumming, jazz drummer and educator. He is known internationally for his work with Herbie Hancock's "Mwandishi" band in the early 1970s, as well as with Shirley Horn, Stan Getz, and Quest (b ...

, Morgan said he had recorded "

" 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'' (1964), which reached the top 20 of the R&B charts. He also briefly rejoined the Jazz Messengers after his successor,

Freddie Hubbard Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...

, joined another group. Together with tenor saxophonist John Gilmore, pianist

John Hicks Sir John Richard 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 economics ...

, and bassist Victor Sproles, this lineup was filmed by the BBC for seminal jazz television program '' Jazz 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's '' Night Dreamer''; Stanley Turrentine's ''Mr. Natural'';

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

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

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, 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 Masters, NEA J ...

'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 albums as ''My Fa ...

' ''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 Bennie Maupin (born August 29, 1940) is an American jazz multireedist who performs on various saxophones, flute, and bass clarinet. Biography Maupin was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is known for his participation in Herbie Hancock's Mwandish ...

, pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Jymie Merritt and drummers Mickey Roker or

Freddie Waits Frederick Douglas Waits (April 27, 1943 – November 18, 1989) was an American 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 (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

's East Village where his band was performing. 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. He was 33 years old. Moore 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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and died there from a heart condition in March 1996. Morgan and Moore 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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 20th-century American jazz composers American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters American male composers Bebop trumpeters Hard bop trumpeters The Jazz Messengers members Murdered African-American people American murder victims People murdered in New York City Jazz musicians from Philadelphia Savoy Records artists Vee-Jay Records artists Riverside Records artists Blue Note Records artists American male jazz musicians 20th-century American male musicians Deaths by firearm in Manhattan DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame members People murdered in 1972

Biography

Death and legacy

Discography

Further reading

References

External links