BeBop Brass Pays Tribute To 'The Sidewinder' With Free April Concert
By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 18, 2013 6:30PM
No list of great jazz trumpeters is complete without Lee Morgan. A child prodigy, the Philadelphia native was playing professionally by age 15 and, among hard bop enthusiasts, was considered an equal to Miles David, Dizzy Gillespie (whom he worked for at 18) and Clifford Brown — Morgan was considered by many to be Brown’s heir apparent after the latter’s 1956 death, studied under Brown and was a founder of the Young Lions movement.
It wasn’t until Morgan joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1958 when he realized his full abilities as a soloist and composer (Morgan was a member of Blakey’s band when they recorded the classic Moanin’) but a crippling heroin addiction de-railed his career in 1961. Two years later he would release The Sidewinder, his most commercially successful album and one of the genre’s most popular crossover hits, and would continue to record and perform at a breakneck pace until he was killed by his common law wife in 1972 at the age of 33. Toward the end of his life Morgan added elements of funk, soul and modal jazz playing to his repertoire, nods to his burgeoning social and political consciousness. As a soloist, few could match Morgan for pure flights of fancy and creativity
Morgan’s career is the focus of an April 10 concert at Tuley Park (501 E. 90th Street) produced by the Jazz Institute of Chicago as part of its “JazzCity” series of free concerts held in Chicago Park District locations across the city. The BeBop Brass, now under the direction of pianist Miguel de la Cerna, will perform a program of songs Morgan played with the Jazz Messengers and as a bandleader, with featured turns by young lion Victor Garcia and old school trumpeters Pharez Whitted and Bobby Lewis. De la Cerna takes over Bebop Brass for Ken Chaney, who passed away last year of natural causes. Other featured performers for this concert are Steve Berry, Adam Thornberg and Audrey Morrison trombone, bassist Marlene Rosenberg and drummer Xavier Breaker.
The concert begins at 7 p.m.