Lee Morgan Lee-Way Blue Note SACD CBNJ 84034 SA

Lee Morgan Lee-Way

Blue Note Analogue Productions CBNJ 84034 SA Hybrid-SACD

Blue Note jazz classic in audiophile sound quality

new, factory sealed

Trumpeter Lee Morgan was the album´s leader, but this April 1960 recording could just as easily have been led by any of the musicians on the date - alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, pianist Bobby Timmons, bassist Paul Chambers or drummer Art Blakey. Each musician makes a vital contribution as a soloist on this album, but it's their collective sound that takes your breath away. On Lee-way, you hear a complex new sound that's more soulful and ambitious than previous Blue Note hard bop releases. Much of the album's beauty is in how the different artists sound playing as one. Morgan's machine gun trumpet almost mellows against McLean's sharp alto edge. In turn, McLean's phrasing takes on a air of salvation when combined with Timmons' strong church-like lines. And Timmons' playing is less percussive here than it is with the Jazz Messengers, thanks largely to the precise sound of Chambers' mid-range bass lines. Art Blakey does his part, keeping everyone moving with his nightstick drum patterns. Leeway was recorded at a critical moment in the careers of these musicians. A month earlier, Morgan, Blakey and Timmons recorded The Big Beat with the rest of the Jazz Messengers. Two months' earlier McLean recorded Music from the Connection with Freddie Redd, in which McLean exhibited a more assertive and almost political sound on his alto. Three months earlier, Timmons recorded This Here Is Bobby Timmons, which heralded a new, neo-gospel piano style. As for Chambers, he had just returned from a rigorous spring tour of Europe backing Miles Davis and an increasingly independent John Coltrane.