Lee Morgan's Riff and Rise
Lee Morgan
Episode:Chewing Gets Funky
In 1958, Lee Morgan was 20 years old and in Art Blakey's band. Six years later, under his own name, he wrote the catchiest riff in jazz history. These three tracks tell the story of a young player who blew beside a legend and then led his own band to a different view.
The opening riff takes everything with it. The instant that funky E-flat phrase begins, your body moves. That riff repeats for ten minutes. It should feel like the same phrase, but as you listen the center of gravity in the rhythm section slowly shifts, and every time the soloist changes, the temperature changes with it. The moment 's tenor saxophone threads into the gaps of the riff is particularly good. One of the best-selling albums in Blue Note's history.
Six years before The Sidewinder. is 20, participating in this album as a member of 's band. The title track, written by Bobby Timmons, has a structure that translates gospel call-and-response directly into jazz. Morgan's trumpet here is still the sound of "a band member." Blakey's drums dominate the whole, and above them a young Morgan blows while searching for his place. You can hear the not-yet-complete sound of the person who will write The Sidewinder six years later.
A leader date from the same year as The Sidewinder — but this isn't a funky riff piece. on piano, on tenor: the music is more modal and exploratory. That the same person in the same year could make music this different. If you only hear The Sidewinder's Morgan you end with "funky player" — but listen to this and you see a different ambition that lived inside him. Hancock's voicings set the color of the piece, and walks carefully across that color.
