He felt that his playing was much more advanced on Grachan Moncur III's essentially avant-garde Evolution album, recorded a month earlier, on November 21, 1963.Īfter this commercial success, Morgan continued to record prolifically, producing such works as Search for the New Land (1964), which reached the top 20 of the R&B charts. According to drummer Billy Hart, Morgan said he had recorded " The Sidewinder" as filler for the album, and was bemused that it had turned into his biggest hit. Morgan himself repeated the formula several times with compositions such as "Cornbread" (from the eponymous album Cornbread) and "Yes I Can, No You Can't" on The Gigolo.
Due to the crossover success of "The Sidewinder" in a rapidly changing pop music market, Blue Note encouraged its other artists to emulate the tune's " boogaloo" beat. The tune was used without Morgan's consent after he threatened to sue, Chrysler agreed not to show the advertisement again and settled the case.
The title track cracked the pop chart in 1964 and served as the background theme for Chrysler television commercials during the World Series. On returning to New York in 1963, he recorded The Sidewinder. According to Tom Perchard, a Morgan biographer, it was Blakey who introduced the trumpeter to heroin, which impeded progression in his career. During his time with The Jazz Messengers, Morgan also wrote several tunes including "The Midget", "Haina", "Celine", "Yama," "Kozo's Waltz", "Pisces", and "Blue Lace." The drug problems of Morgan and Timmons forced them to leave the band in 1961, and the trumpeter returned to Philadelphia, his hometown. This version of the Jazz Messengers, including pianist Bobby Timmons and bassist Jymie Merritt, recorded many albums during 1959–61, including for Blue Note Africaine, The Big Beat, A Night in Tunisia and The Freedom Rider. When Benny Golson left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hire Wayne Shorter, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. He toured with Blakey for a few years, and was featured on numerous albums by the Messengers, including Moanin', which is one of the band's best-known recordings. Joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1958, Morgan further developed his talent as a soloist and composer. On John Coltrane's only Blue Note album as a leader, Blue Train (1957), he played a trumpet with an angled bell (given to him by Gillespie). He was a featured sideman on several early Hank Mobley records, and intermittently thereafter.
He also recorded on the Vee-Jay label and one album for Riverside Records on its short-lived Jazzland subsidiary. Morgan began recording for Blue Note in 1956, eventually recording 25 albums as a leader for the label. He joined Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band at 18 and remained as a member for a year and a half until economic circumstances forced Gillespie to disband the unit in 1958. Morgan recorded prolifically from 1956 until a day before his death in February 1972. His primary stylistic influence was Clifford Brown, with whom he took a few lessons as a teenager. On his thirteenth birthday, his sister Ernestine gave him his first trumpet.
Morgan also knew how to play the alto saxophone. Originally interested in the vibraphone, he soon showed a growing enthusiasm for the trumpet. Įdward Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, on July 10, 1938, the youngest of Otto Ricardo and Nettie Beatrice Morgan's four children. Morgan died at the age of 33 when his common-law wife Helen Morgan shot and killed him following a confrontation at Slugs' Saloon, in New York City. After leaving Blakey for the final time, Morgan continued to work prolifically as both a leader and a sideman with the likes of Hank Mobley and Wayne Shorter, becoming a cornerstone of the Blue Note label. Soon after The Sidewinder was released, Morgan rejoined Blakey for a short period. His song " The Sidewinder", on the album of the same name, became a surprise crossover hit on the pop and R&B charts in 1964, while Morgan's subsequent recordings found him touching on other styles of music such as post-bop and avant-garde jazz as his artistry matured. Morgan stayed with Blakey until 1961 and started to record as leader in the late '50s. One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on John Coltrane's Blue Train (1957) and with the band of drummer Art Blakey before launching a solo career. Edward Lee Morgan (J– February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.