Cooker

Lee Morgan (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 15, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B000GPI19G
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,538 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Cooker" Simmers, August 25, 2006

By 

Michael B. Richman (Portland, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cooker (Audio CD)

For years the only Lee Morgan 1950s Blue Note session available as a single CD domestically has been "Candy" (see my review), but now that has changed with the reissue of "The Cooker" in the RVG series. (Of course all of Lee Morgan's 1950s sessions as a leader were released in the 90s on a now out-of-print Mosaic set.) Recorded less than two months earlier than the aforementioned "Candy" on September 29, 1957, "The Cooker" features Morgan on trumpet, Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Bobby Timmons on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The album features three standards (plus an alternate take of "Just One of Those Things") and two Morgan originals, "Heavy Dipper" and "New-Ma." The album is a solid blowing session and the familiarity of Chambers and Jones, honed during their time with Miles, provides substantial rhythmic support. But it would be a few more years until Lee's writing and playing talents fully blossomed under the tutelage of Art Blakey. For an example in the playing department, one need look no further than the earlier version of "A Night in Tunisia" featured here, revisited and made famous by the Jazz Messengers in 1960 (with compatriot Timmons). For now "The Cooker" simmers and isn't until he makes Art that things begin to boil.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Night with Lee, July 21, 2009

By 

Roger Berlind (NY, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cooker (Audio CD)

This is a very good, early album from Lee Morgan. Like other reviewers, I can't help starting by talking about the performance of "A Night in Tunisia". I have 9 different versions of this wonderful tune in my jazz collection (including 4 versions lead by Art Blakey) and find things to admire in all of them. In fact, I just spent the past 2 hours listening to all of them. This is one of the great jazz classics and listening to so many versions illustrates why jazz is a great art form. Even after Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie made this famous in the 1940s, other musicians were able to play it in innovative ways.

Blakey's versions tend to have the most imaginative percussion; this is especially true of the two versions on his 1957 "A Night in Tunisia" Bluebird album on which all the other band members contribute extra percussion. His version from 1954 features the best trumpet solo courtesy of Clifford Brown. The version with Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter from 1960 is also very good and Lee Morgan climbs close to Brown's peak. Charlie Parker is justifiably famous for his solo on his 1946 septet recording and the 1947 Diz 'N Bird at Carnegie Hall performance, but those two versions are unfortunately short. Dizzy's 1957 big band version at Newport with Morgan doing the trumpet solo is distinctive for its larger ensemble. The version with my favorite sax solo might surprise you: it's Dexter Gordon's quartet version from his 1963 album "Our Man in Paris". Not having a trumpeter, he ends up doing almost all the improvised parts himself and does them brilliantly.

I think the version on this album is very good. Morgan's solo is excellent even if it does not have the full virtuosity of Brown's solo or his later solo from the 1960 Blakey album. I happen to love the sound of the baritone sax and think Pepper Adams makes fine contributions here and on the rest of the album. Philly Joe Jones' drumming is good if not as imaginative as Blakey's and Bobby Timmons contributes a tasty piano solo. Paul Chambers' strong bass line gives the tune momentum. Overall, this is a worthy contribution to the "A Night in Tunisia" canon. My point in discussing all these versions has not been to pick a favorite or rank them but to illustrate that there is room in jazz for many wonderful interpretations of a great tune.

What about the rest of the album? "Heavy Dipper" is a cheerful composition by Morgan that swings. I love the Cole Porter tune "Just One of those Things" and like that Morgan plays it at a very fast tempo that really cooks with outstanding solos; the performance reminds me of the fast takes of "It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got that Swing)" and "The Way You Look Tonight" that Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz recorded in the mid 50s. "Lover Man" is another jazz classic that lets Morgan display his ability to play a melancholy ballad and solo inventively at a slower tempo. Adams is equally exquisite; the melody is well-suited to his instrument. Morgan's other composition, "New-Ma" is also enjoyable.

Overall, this is a very good album from a still young Lee Morgan.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Mature Lee Morgan Hits the Jazz Scene, June 3, 2008

By 

Herbert L Calhoun "paulocal" (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cooker (Audio CD)

Still not 20, this is Lee's fifth album and it demonstrates a confidence and assurance in his playing not seen on earlier cuts. The very fact that he has selected the very challenging Dizzy Gillespie tune "A Night in Tunisia," and does a credible job with it, is itself evidence of his maturity.

I am still not happy with his tenor man or his rhythm section. Both are a bit too formal and academic for Lee's swinging style. Although Lee plays well on all cuts, the group still just does not seem to gel on most of the tunes. There is just too much empty space that's not being fills.

I blame most of this on the journeyman drummer Philly Joe Jones who at the time of the recording was one of the best in the business, but not on this cut. The rhythm section is just not "tight." Even the normal earthy Bobby Timmons seems unusually flat here. There is no pulsation; the beat just hangs. The whole thing seems to be bringing Lee down to their level. Although it picks up on side two, this still is not a good combination for the rising leader of an all-star quintet.

Five Stars for Lee, and two for his sidemen. Three for the album