Many jazz musicians die young. But it wasn't drugs that did for Lee Morgan, although he had, like so many of his generation, struggled with heroin addiction. No, his death in February 1972 came at the hands of his common law wife, Helen, who shot him between sets at Slug's Nightclub in New York. Morgan was only 33, and though his early demise ensured his legendary status it also denied the trumpeter the longevity of career that would have cemented his place in jazz history.
It is only now, for instance, that the biography of a man considered just a step down from Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis has been written. As Tom Perchard's Lee Morgan: His Life, Music and Culture (Equinox, £18.99) reminds us, Morgan was only 18 when he made his debut on Blue Note records; and that only a few months later he laid down an
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sholto byrnes on the jazz genius whose early death denied him his place in history
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astonishingly confident version of A Night in Tunisia, a recording that showed the poise that would make him the leading hard bop trumpeter.
Blue Note continue to reissue Morgan's brilliant output, so check out The Cooker for the track mentioned above, as well as his biggest hit album, The Sidewinder, or the more experimental The Sixth Sense.
There's a great sense of what might have been with Morgan, who was capable of barnstorming boogaloo for the masses, but also wrestled with the idea of jazz as art. "If you ask me what I would call our music," he said, "the best thing I could come up with would be Black Classical music." He would surely have shaped the debates and controversies in jazz over the last three decades. As it is, we must be content with the Blue Note discs. They are testament enough. 
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 16, 2006
 And on piano, Wolfgang Amadeus
Great Scott's - again
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