Blue Note Records
1957
Volume Three
About This Album
Vol. 3 is Lee Morgan's final recording from a series done in the spring of 1957, an important year not only for the teenage trumpeter, but for the dominant hard bop sound that swept the landscape of modern jazz. Morgan preferred the sextet format at this time, recruiting alto saxophonist Gigi Gryce and retaining tenor player Benny Golson, while grabbing bassist Paul Chambers and pianist Wynton Kelly from the Miles Davis/John Coltrane combo. The selection of lesser-known but very talented drummer Charlie Persip for this date is a wise choice, as he is more homogeneous to the composed jazz of Golson, which comprises this entire set. Because of the Golson factor, the music is consistent, but not the hard bop blowing session some may have expected. There are two takes of "Tip-Toeing," inspired by Persip's fanciful, cat-and-mouse-type drumming in a delicate strut drenched in blues, with wonderful solos from Chambers and the author/saxophonist. On other side of the coin, "Domingo" is not Latin-flavored, but instead a straight hard bop line, as the three horns are locked in with great invention and energy. The barren Minnesota flatlands that inspired "Mesabi Chant" are hardly represented by an arid feeling, but instead are enabled by the desolation to create a complicated construct via a 34-bar (not 32-bar) chorus, an aspect that identifies Golson's emerging ideas as a unique jazz composer.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4 and 5)

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