Customer Reviews

Cooker

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

Well, I hope the reviewer who got all that praise in the comments page enjoys the ego stroking, but he fails to mention a serious flaw in this issue. "Night in Tunisia" is actually an unedited, or re-edited take, different from what was issued all these years. It's great to have the alternate of "Just One of Those Things," but Michael Cuscuna should have likewise included both takes of Tunisia. Listen towards the end of Tunisia, after the piano solo, when Lee comes in again stating the head (melody). When he goes into the bridge (middle section of the melody), his solo, beginning with a quarter-note lick, is completely different than in previous domestic and Japanese reissues.

Here it is 2008, and we still don't have the COMPLETE Cooker.

Oh, the good ol' Cuscuna marketing shenanigans: save the alternate of "Just One of..." for the costly Mosaic set, then once Mosaic makes its money on that, wait till 2006 to issue the alternate--thus making your previous investment in The Cooker obsolete--and while he's at it, leave the originally issued "Tunisia" out all together, eventhough it would've easily fit on the CD. Maybe there's some lame excuse offered in the new liner notes.

Yes, I know such tactics might be neccessary to keep a jazz label surviving, but how many times must we purchase the same CD to get it right? Save your money. If you have a previously issued Cooker, just download these two Mp3s, then burn a new, COMPLETE Cooker for yourself.

By the way, Rudy Van Gelder runs a busy recording studio. Do you really believe he has the time to remaster the scads of so called RVGs currently in print, not only for Blue Note but for Prestige, Savoy and other labels?

P.S.: This was BARITONE saxophonist Pepper Adams' first Blue Note session. His soloing is not of the 2 star rating; he's always been nothing less than 5 stars--on ANY session he's played. The same can be said of Philly Joe Jones. These men really MADE the countless sessions they contributed to. The Cooker's takes never fall apart, but the occasional rhythm section unsteadiness can be attributed to bassist Paul Chambers, to my ears, who was known for sometimes showing up wasted. Even at that, he still sounds beautiful. So don't pay any mind to these almighty clowns who call these greats "flat." Disregard the ineptness of any of these earless phoneys who tell you "tenorman" Pepper and Philly Joe get 2 stars. You really should not place much faith in reviews written by wannabees who can't hear the difference between tenor and baritone saxes.

Cuscuna's the one who should get those 2 stars; no, make that 0.

Although Lee Morgan had already made a handful of albums at the age of 19, "The Cooker" (1957) represents his throwing down the gauntlet as successor to Clifford Brown. It's close to being a pure bebop session, suggestive of a date like "For Musicians Only," on which Gillespie, Stitt and Getz set some sort of record for NPS (notes per second). At the same time, the precocious trumpeter, already brimming with confidence, is not about to get reckless: he pulls a punch or two, most notably on the opening "Night in Tunisia."

Bebop was a musical language about comparisons, and Morgan was keenly aware of his predecessors. Charlie Parker's incredible four-bar break at the end of the sixteen-bar tag of Gillespie's signature piece on the 1947 Carnegie Hall concert ("Diz 'N Bird at Carnegie Hall") had come to represent the gold standard of jazz improvisation, which Morgan had only begun to approach on his solo performances of the tune with the Gillespie big band ("Dizzy Gillespie at Newport"). And though Clifford Brown's version is equal parts inspired invention and stunning virtuosity (Art Blakey, "A Night at Birdland," Vol. 1, 1954), the naked four-bar break is given to Lou Donaldson's alto saxophone, with arguably embarrassing results.

Morgan slyly eludes trouble yet takes the listener by surprise when he omits all but the tag's challenging four bars, which he then "wastes" by simply having bass and drums mark time. The listener's letdown is quickly offset, however, by a blistering trumpet solo starting on the first beat of the main chorus, demonstrating why the rising star chose such a deliberative tempo: almost the entirety of his two-chorus solo is played in double time. As dazzling as his execution is, Morgan has one more deception up his sleeve. On both the earlier Gillespie recording and a later Art Blakey date ("A Night in Tunisia," 1960), the trumpeter makes sure he gets his full say on the A7 altered chord of the tune's cadenza: on this occasion, he takes a complete pass!

The characteristically showy side of later Morgan is in evidence on "Heavy Dipper," which has the familiiar Morgan mannerisms--clipped notes, upward slurs, half-valving, triple-tonguing--his solo still as flowing as it is playful. The tempo of "Just One of Those Things" breaks the sound barrier while exposing one of the still-maturing musician's weaknesses: if a turn of phrase sounds good once, certainly playing it a few more times can't be a bad idea. Unfortunately, the effect of these ramped-up, "treadmill" moments can get uncomfortably close to "Carnival of Venice" showpiece territory. The alternate take of the tune proves more musically substantive.

Pepper Adams is a relentless bull throughout, while Timmons, Chambers, and Philly Joe supply all the heat this precocious chef requires.

3 1/2

Cooker propelled this startlingly young trumpeter to the forefront of hard boppers, playing out in retrospect with slightly more charisma than various counterparts.