51.2K
JALee Morgan’s mastery of the trumpet was unparalleled....his fate unimaginable...his legacy indelible.
A prodigy, Morgan was a professional musician at age 15, and at 18 he was a featured soloist with the Dizzy Gillespie big band. He began leading his own recording sessions in the late 1950s, at first exhibiting a style modeled on Clifford Brown’s trumpeting. Even then, however, idiosyncratic elements of phrasing and expression appeared in his playing, elements that were integrated into a personal style during his first tenure (1958–61) with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He recorded his hit “The Sidewinder” before returning to Blakey (1964–65), after which he led his own groups for the rest of his short life.
His skyrocketing career was cut short, at age 33, one cold February night in 1972 at a Manhattan club called Slug’s. He was shot to death by his 46-year-old common-law wife.
Lee Morgan: July 10, 1938 - Feb 19. 1972
#jazzcorner #leemorgan #trumpet #jazz #artblakey
@jazzcorner_
