Lee Morgan: Cornbread (Blue Note Tone Poet series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Tone Poet edition was mastered all-analog by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI and housed in a gatefold jacket. "Ceora" has become a jazz standard, and the album confirmed Morgan as a formidable composer as well as a great trumpeter.

This edition

• Blue Note Tone Poet series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes
• Pressed at RTI
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Following The Sidewinder is the sort of problem most trumpeters would love to have. Lee Morgan went into Rudy Van Gelder's studio on September 18, 1965, with a sextet that reads like a Blue Note all-star team, and Blue Note held the results back until early 1967, by which time the label had plenty of Morgan to go round.

Jackie McLean on alto and Hank Mobley on tenor make a three-horn front line with Morgan, while Herbie Hancock, Larry Ridley and Billy Higgins handle the engine room. The title track is a nine-minute strut with a churchy, down-home groove, and "Our Man Higgins" is Morgan's salute to his drummer, who duly drives it hard. "Ceora" is the one people come back for, a lyrical, bossa-tinged ballad with one of Morgan's loveliest melodies. Harold Arlen's "Ill Wind" gets a gorgeous, unhurried reading, and "Most Like Lee" sends everyone home swinging. Every tune but the Arlen is Morgan's own.

Joe Harley curates the Tone Poet series and picked this one for good reason. A song named after your drummer is a lovely gesture; a drummer like Billy Higgins is the kind of reason you write one.

Also at Kops: more Lee Morgan on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# B0029911-01), a reissue of the 1967 album.