Artist: Lee Morgan
Year: 1958
Genre: Hard Bop
Grade: A-
I know I’ve said it many times before but Lee Morgan’s searing 1958 LP, The Cooker, is another album that deserves this pronouncement: “this may be the hardest hard bop ever recorded.” Morgan’s trumpet solos are fiery, but the rhythm section of Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones is even more powerful. They provide the sturdy backbone necessary to sustain such bedlam.
Morgan had already studied under Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane, but The Cooker was his official arrival on the jazz scene. Perhaps most impressive is the fact that the young trumpeter was only 20 years old when the session was recorded.
Lee Morgan: The Cooker Album Review
