The Gigolo [Bonus Track] [Remaster]

Performer: Lee Morgan (Trumpet)
Artist: Wayne Shorter; Harold Mabern; Billy Higgins
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Lee Morgan (trumpet); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Harold Mabern (piano); Bob Cranshaw (acoustic bass); Billy Higgins (drums). Producer: Alfred Lion. Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna. Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on June 25 and July 1, 1965. Includes liner notes by Nat Hentoff. Personnel: Lee Morgan (trumpet); Lee Morgan ; Harold Mabern (piano); Bob Cranshaw (upright bass); Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone); Billy Higgins (drums). Audio Remasterer: Rudy Van Gelder. Liner Note Author: Bob Blumenthal. Recording information: Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (06/25/1965/07/01/1965). Photographer: Francis Wolff. More quintessential hard bop from one of the genre's leading figures at the height of his considerable powers as a composer and trumpeter. Morgan had just returned to solo work a year earlier after his second stint with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers; in 1965 the trumpeter also released CORNBREAD and THE RUMPROLLER and did numerous sessions as a sideman. Morgan composed the title track, and three others including the Coots/Gillespie ballad "You Go To My Head" round things out. "Yes I Can, No You Can't" opens with the rhythm section laying down a churning vamp; the horns enter with a typical Morgan statement, funky, swaggering and confident. "Speedball" is a bebop-style blues, but more relaxed, with a secondary theme appearing in the third chorus of the head. "Trapped," a modified minor blues, is more urgent, while "The Gigolo" is a brooding and majestic jazz waltz more evocative of a bullfight than of the ballroom. Throughout, the ensemble work is tight and the solos crackle with passion and joy. Lee Morgan was the leading trumpeter in hard bop during the 1960s and he recorded quite a few classic albums for Blue Note. This is one of them. The CD reissue (which adds an alternate take of the title cut to the original five-song program) features Morgan at his best, whether playing his memorable blues "Speed Ball," an explorative ballad version of "You Go to My Head," a lengthy "The Gigolo," or his other two originals ("Yes I Can, No You Can't" and "Trapped"). There are no weak selections on this set and the playing by the leader, Wayne Shorter on tenor, pianist Harold Mabern, bassist Bob Cranshaw, and drummer Billy Higgins is beyond any serious criticism. ~ Scott Yanow

Along with Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan was one of the leading trumpeter/composers of the 1960s hard-bop era. His composition "The Sidewinder" is perhaps THE signature piece of the genre, and is practically the textbook definition of the "boogaloo" groove that became popular in the mid-'60s. Influenced by Clifford Brown, Morgan possessed fleet fingers and a robust tone, and his enormously influential approach utilized blues-based harmony, simple melodic motives, and funky, groove-oriented rhythms. The jazz world was robbed of an innovator when Morgan was shot dead by a jealous girlfriend in 1972.

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