The Roulette Sides
Lee MorganLPA
- Suspended Sentence
- A Bid For Sid
LPB
- Minor Strain
One of the greatest jazz trumpet players that ever lived, Lee Morgan was jazz’s original “young lion.” Born in Philadelphia in 1938, he joined Dizzy Gillespie's big band when he was just 18 years old and made his first recordings that same year. By the time he was 20, Morgan was the star of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and soon became one of the most important and influential players of the 1960s.
Morgan's style was hard bop to the core. Influenced by Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, and of course, Dizzy Gillespie, he added his own biting attack and an explosive, incendiary tone that had none of the sunny qualities of classic bebop trumpet playing. He played with a wistfulness and sorrow that rivalled jazz's most famous trumpeter, Miles Davis. But at the same time, Morgan's solos were melodic, highly expressive, and remarkably lyrical.
By 1960, Lee Morgan had become the musical director for the Jazz Messengers, developing into a composer of considerable strength and bringing Wayne Shorter into the fold. As a leader, he recorded an album for Blue Note, two albums for Vee-Jay, one for Riverside and half an album for Roulette that year. While the jazz press was asserting that Lee’s style had “matured,” he was only 22.
Recorded in June 1960 at NYC’s Capitol Studios, these three tracks were originally released in 1962 on Roulette Records as the Best Of Birdland: Vol 1 (Side A featured John Coltrane, and Side B Lee Morgan). Part of the famous DJ Symphony Sid’s Birdland Series, who had made a name for himself broadcasting live from the Birdland club to radio listeners up and down the Eastern seaboard, the sessions include ‘A Bid For Sid’, composed by Lee Morgan, as a tribute to him.
These three sides are available in Mono Vinyl 33 1/3 rpm for the first time since the 1970s, cut straight to lacquer from the original production masters.
Now is the time to enjoy the first chapter in the professional life of this extraordinary musician.