Lee Morgan hadn’t even celebrated his twentieth birthday when he ventured into Rudy Van Gelder’s recording studio at Hackensack, New Jersey, on September 29, 1957, to document The Cooker. Initially from Philadelphia, Morgan (1938-1972) was a wunderkind trumpeter who idolized Clifford Brown (the groundbreaking exhausting bop horn blower who had perished in a automotive accident in 1956) and served his musical apprenticeship taking part in within the horn part of a short-lived massive band led by one other notable trumpeter – a puff-cheeked wind machine who glided by the title of Dizzy Gillespie. That was in 1956, when Morgan was simply 18.
Later the identical yr, he was provided a recording contract by New York’s Blue Observe Information, then the main jazz indie label, and recorded his inaugural LP for them, Lee Morgan Certainly!. There adopted a spate of intense recording exercise that noticed the younger trumpet prodigy document 5 extra LPs inside a interval of ten and a half months. However in addition to main his personal tasks, information of Morgan’s prodigious, preternatural expertise unfold quick and he discovered himself recording because the trumpet foil to tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, who was additionally signed to Blue Observe. And, maybe extra considerably, simply 4 days earlier than he went to document what turned The Cooker, Morgan was in Van Gelder Studio taking part in alongside rising tenor star and fellow Philadelphian John Coltrane, that includes on what’s universally acknowledged because the saxophonist’s first really nice album, Blue Practice.
After the extraordinary self-discipline and focus required for the Coltrane session, Morgan desired to embark on a extra relaxed type of vibe within the studio. Meting out with the notion of high-art ideas and punctiliously thought-out preparations, he opted for an excellent old school blowing session, the place the collaborating musicians may show their aptitude and expertise in a spontaneous, casual method.
Launched in March 1958, The Cooker was completely different from Morgan’s earlier Blue Observe outings (Lee Morgan Sextet, Lee Morgan Vol.3 and Metropolis Lights) in that he used a smaller group. It was, in truth, a quintet, that includes the potent engine room of Miles Davis’ celebrated five-piece band within the form of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. On piano was one other younger musician from The Metropolis Of Brotherly Love. His title was Bobby Timmons, and he would go on to grow to be an essential exhausting bop composer (he wrote the basic songs “Moanin’” and “Dat Dere”). Timmons, like Morgan, would ultimately be part of Artwork Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Morgan’s studio band was accomplished by the addition of baritone sax specialist Pepper Adams, whose resonant sound added a unique, darker, dimension to the music, particularly when mixing with Morgan’s horn.
Opening The Cooker is “A Night In Tunisia,” Morgan’s tackle a 40s bebop staple co-written by his erstwhile boss, Dizzy Gillespie. The music is usually rendered at a frantic, breakneck tempo, however Philly Joe Jones’ pummeling tom-toms, which open the nine-minute efficiency, start at a reasonably medium tempo. A delicate but percussive groove is established by Chambers, Jones and Timmons, earlier than Adams blows a snaking determine over which Morgan enunciates Gillespie’s well-known eastern-flavored melody. Then begins a sequence of solos, with Morgan shining brightly as he blends darting chromatic runs with vibrating tremolos. Pepper follows with a molten solo that ornaments the unique theme with ingenious melodic twists and turns, after which Timmons weighs in with a sequence of fleet-fingered piano runs.
“Heavy Dipper” is one in every of Morgan’s personal tunes: a fierce swinger that includes some fantastic soloing in addition to cohesive ensemble work that additionally permits Philly Joe Jones some transient moments within the highlight with quick solo drum passages.
Pepper Adams lets rip with a high-velocity first solo on a supercharged tackle Cole Porter’s music “Just One Of Those Things,” which can also be notable for Paul Chambers’ power-walking bassline. Morgan’s solo spot doesn’t arrive till three minutes into the music, however when it does, it’s straightforward to know why the younger Philadelphian, then simply 19, was considered one in every of jazz’s rising stars.
The group cools down with a languid – however, crucially, not torpid – rendition of the bluesy romantic ballad “Lover Man,” a music indelibly related to, and written for, Billie Vacation. Initially, we hear simply Morgan’s burnished horn and bassist Chambers, earlier than the remainder of the ensemble enter. Peppers Adams’ solo is especially arresting on account of its husky eloquence.
The Cooker closes with “New-Ma,” the second Morgan composition on the album. It’s a mid-paced groove with a strolling bassline whose relaxed gait stylistically anticipates the texture of pianist and fellow Blue Observe recording artist Sonny Clark’s basic exhausting bop quantity “Cool Struttin’,” recorded 4 months later.
Typically if you hear how mature Lee Morgan sounds on these classic recordings, it’s straightforward to neglect that he was nonetheless a young person who had rather a lot to study, each in life and in music. Even so, The Cooker reveals a younger man who was starting to interrupt free from the shadow of Clifford Brown and set up his personal sound and musical identification.
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