Loquacious trumpeter Lee Morgan was a prodigy who played in Dizzy Gillespie's big band as a teenager and in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers as a young man, first alongside tenor saxophonist Benny Golson and later with his friend tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

He developed a trumpet voice that could evoke the blues in nearly any situation. He intentionally cracked, crushed and stuttered notes for vocal effect. His modes of expression were conversational, casual, humorous, fiery, cocky, sometimes meditative or mysterious.

He frequently collaborated with Wayne Shorter, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Joe Henderson, and especially drummer Billy Higgins. Morgan always had top flight pianists on his own recording dates including Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Harold Mabern, Wynton Kelley, and Barry Harris. With Art Blakey the pianists were Bobby Timmons and Cedar Walton.

Writing enough individual articles about Morgan's performances to do justice to his work seemed to me to be too daunting a prospect; it would take a book. Better to point to an enormous eight hour playlist that allows you to listen to some of his better stuff in a well paced and varied sequence or that you can sample at your leisure.

Morgan played on so many great sessions for Blue Note Records that following his career is a great survey of that label's catalog in the late 1950's and all through the 1960's.

His career came to an end when he was murdered in Slug's Tavern on the Lower East Side of Manhattan,in mid-performance as a new set started, when his band performed there on the evening of 19 February 1972. He was 33 years old.

The story that drummer Billy Hart tells about how that happened has the impact of a Greek tragedy. "Listen to Hart here":http://www.billyhartmusic.com/The%20Day%20Lee%20Morgan%20Died.mp3

The albums that are sampled by this playlist are:

"Search For The New Land - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/Search_For_The_New_Land"The Procrastinator - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/The_Procrastinator"Night Dreamer - Wayne Shorter":http://mog.com/music/Wayne_Shorter/Night_Dreamer"The Gigolo - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/The_Gigolo"Cornbread - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/Cornbread"Here's Lee Morgan - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/Here's_Lee_Morgan"The Rumproller - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/The_Rumproller"The Sidewinder - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/The_Sidewinder"The Sixth Sense - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/The_Sixth_Sense"Infinity - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/Infinity"The Last Session - Lee Morgan":http://mog.com/music/Lee_Morgan/The_Last_Session"No Room For Squares - Hank Mobley":http://mog.com/music/Hank_Mobley/No_Room_For_Squares"Dippin' - Hank Mobley":http://mog.com/music/Hank_Mobley/Dippin'"A Caddy For Daddy - Hank Mobley":http://mog.com/music/Hank_Mobley/A_Caddy_For_Daddy"All Or Nothing At All - Wayne Shorter":http://mog.com/music/Wayne_Shorter/All_Or_Nothing_At_All"John Coltrane - Blue Train":http://mog.com/music/John_Coltrane/Blue_Train"Mode For Joe - Joe Henderson":http://mog.com/music/Joe_Henderson/Mode_For_Joe"The Freedom Rider - Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers":http://mog.com/music/Art_Blakey%252FJazz_Messengers/The_Freedom_Rider"Indestructible! - Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers":http://mog.com/music/Art_Blakey%252FJazz_Messengers/Indestructible"A Night In Tunisia - Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers":http://mog.com/music/Art_Blakey%252FJazz_Messengers/A_Night_In_Tunisia"The Big Beat - Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers":http://mog.com/music/Art_Blakey%252FJazz_Messengers/The_Big_Beat"Moanin' - Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers":http://mog.com/music/Art_Blakey%252FJazz_Messengers/Moanin'