MORGAN, LEE

Personnel: Lee Morgan (trumpet); Bennie Maupin (tenor saxophone); Cedar Walton (piano); Reggie Workman (bass); Billy Higgins (drums).
Producer: Francis Wolff.
Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna.
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on May 3, 1968. Originally relesed on Blue Note (84289). Includes liner notes by Leonard Feather.
Lee Morgan is regarded as one of the great trumpet players of his era, with a style that combined the dexterity and precision of Gillespie with the minimalism of Miles Davis. Having started playing professionally at the tender age of 15, Morgan spent the rest of his short life playing hard bop with the best in the business. During his two tenures with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Morgan refined his playing style and composing prowess even further, and when they parted in 1965, Morgan was free to blaze his own trails.
These six songs were recorded by a 29-year-old Morgan in May 1968, one month after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Four years later, Morgan's life was also cut short by a bullet. Backed by a prodigiously talented, intuitive band, whose work shines on CARAMBA, Morgan shows his mastery as a soloist. The title track is an extended vamp that showcases the marvelous interplay between Morgan and his band. On "Soulita," Morgan's solo echoes some of the snakey lines from his signature "Sidewinder." The moods are always clearly defined in Morgan's emotional delivery, from the aggressive runs of "Cunning Lee" to the gentle closer "A Baby's Smile."

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