Album Reviews

Lee Morgan’s 1959 solo debut recorded when he was just 19 is aptly named. It’s an album of standards in a quartet setting designed to show off the prodigy’s ability to wrap his big, warm tone around familiar melodies.

Morgan covers chestnuts like “Since I Fell For You,” “All the Way,” and others, along with Jimmy Heath’s “C.T.A.” infusing them with playful, though forceful note-skipping around the melodic lines.

When I was a kid and wanting to get into jazz I went into a record store and asked the clerk to suggest an album. He gave me Coltrane’s then recently released My Favorite Things. He asked me if I knew the song from “The Sound of Music,” and of course I did. He said “Listen to the tune and then at some point the melody will disappear and eventually it will come back. Don’t get scared, just keep listening. Keep playing the song and keep the melody in mind. Eventually you’ll be able to follow what Coltrane is doing throughout that time when you don’t hear the melody and when you do, you’ll understand jazz.”

Great advice. This record is like the Coltrane album. It’s an album of familiar tunes not taken too far afield by Morgan. It too is a great intro to jazz. It’s also wonderfully recorded mono, with Morgan’s trumpet being particularly juicy and rich in the foreground—like candy.