Lee Morgan Art Gallery in Harlem, NYC

[btf1980]

Figured I would post this here, since it's in the realm of the "analog minded".

40 years ago, Lee Morgan was murdered while he was about to perform onstage at Slugs, a jazz club in the East Village section of NYC. Sunday, February 19th was the 40th anniversary of that senseless act.

The Shrine of the Masters (SOM) Gallery in Harlem houses a permanent collection dedicated to the life and music of Lee Morgan.

Lena Sherrod, the executive director of the SOM Jazz Gallery put together an invite only event that I was fortunate enough to attend. It was to commemorate and honor Lee Morgan, as well as Jim Harrison from Jazz Mobile. The speakers included legends like Larry Ridley, Louis Hayes and Harold Mabern.

Click here for a recent NY Daily News article on the gallery.

The walls were adorned with the LP covers that Morgan played on as a leader, and as a sideman. Over 125 of them in total. I'm proud to say that I have a good 90+ of them. There were also many unseen, personal photos. Didn't think it was right to start taking pics of that. Nevertheless, I took a some pics of the space, focusing on a few of the covers.

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Larry Ridley. A wonderful and gracious man. An ambassador and educator of the music, and a treasure trove of information.

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[btf1980]

A friend of mine who attended wrote a short blurb. Read it here if you are so inclined. http://mybutbeautiful.tumblr.com/pos...zz-as-you-walk

[wkhanna]

Atane,
Thanks so much for posting this and the links.
All V fascinating, relevant and reverent.

[aarsoe]

cool :T

[btf1980]

Atane,
Thanks so much for posting this and the links.
All V fascinating, relevant and reverent.

Thanks. Indeed, it's great stuff.

Here are some pics below my friend Henry took. Check out his site here for great photos while you're at it.

The sax player is Bill Saxton. He has his own club. Here's a video profile on him and his club.

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A couple more pics here: Link no longer available

[wkhanna]

Hey Atane.
Your post has motivated me to add some Lee Morgan to my library.
Please advise as to your top 2 or 3, 'must have' titles.
Thanks,
Bill

[btf1980]

Hey Atane.
Your post has motivated me to add some Lee Morgan to my library.
Please advise as to your top 2 or 3, 'must have' titles.
Thanks,
Bill

I like to put Lee Morgan in 2 categories. Before The Sidewinder and after The Sidewinder. Both are awesome, but after The Sidewinder, he began to explore far more with his playing. He grew leaps and bounds, and was composing a lot more. I don't have an album of his that I don't like to be honest, so nailing it down to just 2 or 3 is hard. I'll just list the albums that I think are worthy.

The Sidewinder - His most popular album.


Indeed! - This was his debut for Blue Note records. He was only 18 years old. It's pretty remarkable how a kid fresh out of high school could be playing at this level. Scary almost.


Candy - He was just 19 here.


Lee-Way. A really swinging album, with 1st rate sidemen.


Search For The New Land - This was after The Sidewinder, and Morgan creatively was unstoppable.


TomCat - This album was unreleased for years. I'm thankful they did release it, it's top notch.


His entire discography is great, but these are great titles to start with. Of course, his sideman dates with the Jazz Messengers is remarkable also.

For his more adventurous playing, then there is Evolution by Grachan Moncur III.

[btf1980]

Another shot by my friend Henry. http://room59-occupied.tumblr.com/

Larry Riddley and Patience Higgins

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[John Holmes]

I agree, very cool stuff indeed!