Leeway [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

Lee Morgan | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 27, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 1960
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B00006C77E
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,908 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #11 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Boogaloo
  • #35 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Bebop

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the lesser known Blue Note-Sessions, August 29, 2002

By 

G. Schramke (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leeway (Audio CD)

Lee Morgan was one of the most frequently recorded artists on the Blue Note label. Even if this session didn't become a hit like, let's say "The Sidewinder", I immediatly liked the music very much. With such experienced sidemen like Jackie McLean, Bobby Timmons, Paul Chambers and Art Blakey, it's clear that something exiting will happen, they really stretch out on each of the four tracks. Lee Morgan is particularly fascinating on "Midtown Blues": In the middle of his solo, he introduces something otherwise often used by Sonny Rollins, when he bursts out spontanously, frequently returning to the tonic, as someone exploring all his possibilities and nevertheless going "back to the roots". Jackie McLean is superb as always. Here it seems that he gets a somewhat "smoother" sound than usually, he starts his solos on the deep register of his instrument, almost sounding like a tenor sax. Timmons, Chambers and Blakey are also great as ever, and dig the two composition by Cal Massey (" These are soulful days" and "Nakatini Suite"), they are really beautiful tunes from a nearly forgotten composer, who was a favorite by many jazz musicians of that period.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Pre "Sidewinder" Lee Morgan, February 22, 2003

By 

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

"Leeway" is a terrific hard bop album, and Lee Morgan's best pre-Sidewinder recording. The personnel on this session from April 1960 is Jackie McLean on alto sax, Bobby Timmons on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Blakey on drums. All these musicians play in top form, but it is Jackie and Art that make the session. Sometimes Jackie can sound a little flat, but not at all here, and Blakey's drumming provides the solid backbone this group needs, yet he always knows the best spot for the appropriate fill and flourish. The tunes are all great driving boppers with two of them, "These Are Soulful Days" and "Nakatini Suite," authored by Lee's Philadelphia colleague Cal Massey. "The Lion and the Wolff" is Lee's tribute to Blue Note founders Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, while Jackie wrote "Midtown Blues." All in all, "Leeway" is a classic Blue Note session that thankfully has resurfaced in the RVG series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lee leaves space for Chambers and Cal Massey--and they deliver, January 23, 2008

By 

Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leeway (Audio CD)

Not sure I'd agree with the previous reviewer that this 1960 session is Morgan's best before "Sidewinder" (1957 was a kind year to Lee, marked by at least three outstanding albums under his leadership), but it's his best between 1957 and 1963 (or, if you prefer, his first significant outing as a post-teen trumpet player). As Mr. Richmond points out, Jackie McClean tempers his sound, removing the acidity that can make it seem intrusive or even dominating. Chambers and Blakey were infrequent rhythm partners, but they complement one another beautifully. Paul has the first solo on the date, making a melodic statement that holds Bu in check but not enough to blunt his forceful, assured and reassuring pulse. Timmons is heard to far greater effect here than on either his dates with Cannonball or the famous "Moanin'" session with Blakey. He plays swinging, lilting single-note lines worthy of a Wynton Kelley and takes spread-out block-chorded choruses on brisk tempos that would scare away all players save a Red Garland.

Morgan is a quintessential team player on the date, yet contributing stellar if at times rough-edged solos, equal parts fire and warmth. Listen to the beauty of his fat lower register on "Mid-Town Blues," but note how the piece is stamped as much by Chambers' melodic ideas as any other member of the quintet. If there were ever any doubt about the critical importance of Paul Chambers both as a bass player and as a component in the groups of Miles Davis throughout the '50s and into the early '60s, this recording, perhaps more than any other, is sufficient to dispel them. Although he could on occasion allow his attention to wander, on this date his time is catalytic and rock solid, his solo contributions inventive yet economical.

The invisible member on the date is the hard-luck, struggling and obscure musician-composer Cal Massey, who accounts for half of the program, both of his compositions heard to greater advantage here than on any other recording. Nat Hentoff's laudatory and sympathetic liner notes perhaps explain why he would subsequently arrange for Massey to have his own recording session ("Blues to Coltrane"). They do not, however, clarify why the writer-critic-producer did nothing about seeing it to release (it was eventually issued posthumously).