Lee Morgan was a trumpet prodigy from Philadelphia who first became known to the jazz public when, as an 18 year old, he started to play with the Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band. In 1957, he played fiery trumpet solos on John Coltrane's acclaimed  "Blue Train. He played in Art Blakey's Jazz Messenger's along side tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter in the early 1960s. 

He initially played crackling fast trumpet solos in a style, which showed that Dizzy and Clifford Brown were his first heroes. As he worked, he showed a talent for adapting blues ideas to fit any imaginable setting. He brought the blues into his solos with stuttering half-valved effects that became an instantly recognizable part of his sound. His solos were thoughtful, conversational sounding, and frequently had a humorous tinge to them. By his late twenties, when he started to lead his own bands his emotional range was broadening.

He wrote original compositions for many of Blakey's recording dates on Blue Note and the recording sessions that he led under his own name. By the mid-1960s he had become a fine composer and recorded a wonderful series of albums under his own name including "The Sidewinder", "Cornbread", "The Gigolo" and "The Rumproller".

The two I love best are his "Search For The New Land" and "The Procrastinator" albums.  "Search For The New Land" featured six of Morgan's original compositions. "The Procrastinator" premiered four new Morgan works and two by Wayne Shorter.

At age 33, Lee Morgan was murdered by his common law wife as he left the stage during a performance break at Slugís Tavern on the Lower Eastside of Manhattan in February 1972.

 Iíve always thought that Lee Morganís music was very interesting and deserved to be played more often. For some reason, perhaps lack of interest from the corporations that own Morganís copyrights, his music from ìSearch For The New Worldî and ìThe Procrastinatorî were never published as sheet music, or made it into the jazz fakebooks or play along volumes. ìThe Procrastinatorî album was not released to the public by Blue Note until five years after his death. As Blue Note changed corporate ownership several times in the late 70s and early 80s this album went out of print for a considerable period.

Jamey Aebersold is publishing a Lee Morgan play along CD with sheet music just this winter that covers a majority of his tunes from those albums. Several of the beauties from these albums, though,  are still not represented.

Iíve gone ahead and transcribed two of those, Melancholee and Soft Touch, and have published their changes on SongTrellis:. I hope youíll appreciate them and make an aquaintance with the rest of Mr. Morganís work.