Marcyiiena Morgan

The sturdiness of the blues tradition will support any band with decent chops and good instincts and make it sound good, but only the rarest bands overcome the weight of that same tradition to make music original enough for greatness. The Dallas quartet Mike Morgan & the Crawl is the perfect example of a bar band that serves the blues legacy honorably without ever adding much to it. Ain't Worried No More includes 9 songs by guitarist Morgan among its 13 tracks, but these represent a reshuffling of old materials rather than anything personal enough to be forever associated with its composer. Morgan, who wears a pirate patch over his right eye, is not a singer; he leaves that to his longtime partner and harmonica soloist Lee McBee, whose gruff and soulful baritone never distracts from the band's groove…

Trumpeter Lee Morgan unleashes his all-time classic 1964 album The Sidewinder plus two further Blue Note landmarks: 1957's City Lights featuring the Miles Davis rhythm section of Paul Chambers and Art Taylor; and 1969's Charisma featuring Jackie McLean, Cedar Walton and Billy Higgins.

The second volume of this series (Volume 1 is on 8.573995) visits 20th-century France, where the combination of trumpet and piano inspired music of ravishing beauty, intimacy and wit. Through the bluesy retrospection of Jean Hubeau's Sonata, the voluptuous rhapsody of Florent Schmitt's Suite and the avantgarde eclecticism of Antoine Tisné's Héraldiques, this album explores the quintessentially Gallic sonorities that came to redefine the instruments voice for the modern era.

This digitally remastered set features two classic Lee Morgan albums: "The Cooker" (1958) and "Lee-Way" (1961).
The Cooker (1958). The trumpeter, then just 19, teams up with baritonist Pepper Adams, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones for a particularly strong set that is highlighted by a lengthy and fiery "Night in Tunisia," "Lover Man" and a rapid rendition of "Just One of Those Things." Morgan plays remarkably well for his age (already ranking just below Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis), making this an essential acquisition…

"Flow Overflow" was a double LP: "Flow" were what Morgan calls "spontaneous compositions" recorded in one take. On "Overflow" he overdubbed a cassette of recordings he had made when fooling around with the new (at the time) Yamaha DX7 Mark II synthesizer. He thought this cassette (which was just a series of instant improvised sketches, each inspired by the new sounds available on the DX7) was just a bunch of ideas which he would develop and re-record, but they had such a good, natural feel to them that he used parts of the actual cassette and added other instruments in his home studio. The general style of these albums: hmmm, a kind of synthesised modern spiritual chamber music. Like "Inside Satie", the 1998 CD re-issue of this album has been beautifully remastered and re-packaged with a cover photograph by Regina Deluise.

Texas Guitarist Mike Morgan reunites with his former Black Top label-mate Lee McBee and longtime friend Randy McAllister on Stronger Every Day. This album features all original material except a reading of Gatemouth Brown's classic Okie Dokie Stomp. Lee McBee's pleading vocal on "Sweet Angel" leads to a fiery solo by Mike and soul is visited by Randy McAllister on "Where's the Love", "When I Get Back Home" and the title track "Stronger Every Day."