Saturday 21st September 2024, 17:00 – House of Hard Bop.
The Procastinator is an album by Lee Morgan, recorded by Blue Note in 1967 and 1969. But the release did not follow until 1978. Given the quality, you wonder why it remained on the shelf for so long. From the second half of the 1960s onwards, several Blue Note recordings by Morgan suffered the same fate.
And Lee Morgan Live at the Lighthouse (1970) is the last album, and the only live recording released during his lifetime. Fireworks! The top line-up of the album The Procrastinator: besides Morgan, Wayne Shorter tenor, Bobby Hutcherson vibraphone, Herbie Hancock piano, Ron Carter bass, Billy Higgins drums. Hutcherson’s vibes are a radiant color in this sound palette.
The opening piece, the refined layered The Procrastinator, shows the composer Lee Morgan at his best. In a relaxed tempo, the first 16 bars (8+8) expose an equally relaxed, unison melody. Hancock’s piano riffs contrapuntally, ‘John Lewis-like’ through it. This is followed by a change to a strongly contrasting, tension-building bridge: tension in the harmonic polyphony, and in a – agonizingly slow – chromatic ascent. The theme section is concluded by repeating the 16 opening bars. Then: bass and drums play a swing intro of 4 bars, after which… the exposition is repeated in its entirety, now with swing accompaniment in the rhythm section. The theme is captivating enough to hear it again in that variant. Now the soloists can let loose, each one chorus, which results in beautiful, concentrated solos. The conclusion also brings back the theme section twice, but now mirrored in relation to the beginning.
Party Time (Morgan) keeps it – in the same tempo – a bit simpler. A blues that easily, naturally, slides into the ears – a characteristic, by the way, that can also be attributed to the high quality of the composition and the perfection of the soloistic elaborations. Pianist Hancock opens all his blues registers. Just try to sit still while listening, and keep your body still. It will be difficult.
Wayne Shorter’s Dear Sir switches back in tempo and mood. The listener must switch up in concentration. Alternative: lie down quietly and let everything come over you. A typical Shorter theme, not easy to sing. Long sustained notes. Meditative atmosphere, that is retained in all solos. We don’t hear Morgan like this very often.
Stop Start (Morgan) is an energetic, up-tempo bebopper. We can forgive drummer Higgins’ mistake at the beginning of the four-by-four (three bars instead of four).
Rio is the second Shorter from this album. Long intro of bass, coupled with a bossa-like drum pattern. Don’t miss the pianissimo sounds of Hutcherson’s vibraphone. Just like in Dear Sir, we hear Morgan connecting with Shorter’s solo. Everyone lets themselves be steered in Shorter’s direction by this theme too.
After the flowing, ‘over the bar lines’ undulating intro by pianist Hancock, Morgan’s theme Soft Touch sounds surprisingly clear. Eight bars, basic chord progression – the soloists know what to do with that. Soft Touch? Sometimes the sparks fly from Hutcherson’s vibraphone. A fitting final chord to this series of pieces.
In July 1970, Lee Morgan is in the legendary jazz club The Lighthouse, in Hermosa Beach, California. Next to him saxophonist Bennie Maupin. Harold Mabern piano, Jymie Merritt bass, and Mickey Roker drums. Blue Note Records records and releases the album a year later: Lee Morgan Live at the Lighthouse. It is the last record, and the only live recording, released during Morgan’s lifetime.
The Beehive is a composition by pianist Harold Mabern; one of his best-known. A tuxedo theme, consisting of short, varying phrases, alternated with solidly filled solo bars by drummer Mickey Roker. That sets the tone. The long, effervescent solos by Maupin, Morgan, Mabern and Roker – what energy bursts from that drum set! – maintain the high pressure for more than 15 minutes.
A year and a half after this concert, a pistol shot from his ex ends Lee Morgan’s life.
House of Hard Bop – Eric Ineke
Next month in House of Hard Bop: the Herbie Hancock Sextet
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