Trumpeter Lee Morgan performs two funky boogaloos, a ballad, and three complex group originals on this album whose music was first released in 1980. This is a transitional date with the hard bop stylist leaning in the direction of modal music and even anticipating aspects of fusion. His sextet…

From late 1967 through 1968, Lee Morgan fronted a fine sextet with alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and the less-heralded tenor saxophonist Frank Mitchell. The group recorded The Sixth Sense, but by September of 1968, Morgan, Mitchell, and drummer Billy Higgins remained, the band revamped and reduced to a quintet….

To follow up on his unexpected boogaloo hit “The Sidewinder,” Lee Morgan recorded Andrew Hill’s somewhat similar “The Rumproller” but this time the commercial magic was not there. However the trumpeter, tenor-saxophonist Joe Henderson, pianist Ronnie Mathews, bassist Victor Sproles and drummer Billy Higgins all play quite well on…

Carried by its almost impossibly infectious eponymous opening track, The Sidewinder helped foreshadow the sounds of boogaloo and soul-jazz with its healthy R&B influence and Latin tinge. While the rest of the album retreats to a more conventional hard bop sound, Morgan’s compositions are forward-thinking and universally solid. Only…

Although recorded in 1965, this excellent Lee Morgan Quintet session (which features the trumpeter with altoist Jackie McLean, pianist Larry Willis, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Billy Higgins) was not released until 1980 and quickly went out of print until this 1998 CD reissue. It deserved a much better…

Lee Morgan’s final studio recording before he was murdered was initially released as a two-fer LP, and the original recordings without alternate takes are included here on one CD. This was a fertile creative time for Morgan, as rivals Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw were embracing the electrified sounds…

This session headed by trumpeter Lee Morgan was not initially released until this 1998 CD. Morgan is joined by an all-star cast of James Spaulding on flute and alto, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, baritonist Pepper Adams, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Mickey Roker, but the music overall is not all that memorable. Most of the selections, although allegedly…

This set (reissued on CD in 1997) was one of trumpeter Lee Morgan’s lesser-known Blue Note recordings but it is quite rewarding. The notable sextet (which also includes altoist Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley on tenor, pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Billy Higgins) performs originals by Morgan,…

Until its 1996 reissue, this was one of the most obscure of all Lee Morgan Blue Note albums. A transitional effort that finds the trumpeter gradually moving beyond hard bop into more modal music, the date starts out with the surprisingly derivative title cut which is very similar to…

This three-CD set from Blue Note expands trumpeter Lee Morgan’s original two-LP set from four selections to 12. Morgan’s music had become much more modal by this time, heavily influenced by John Coltrane, although some of the previously unissued numbers (including a remake of his popular “The Sidewinder”) are…