Lee Morgan’s Hard Bop Classic ‘Lee-Way’ To Receive Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series Reissue
The classic 1960 LP, which features Paul Chambers and Art Blakey, will be released on July 17.
Lee Morgan’s 1960 hard bop classic, Lee-way, is set to be released as part of Blue Note’s Classic Vinyl Series on July 17.
The album features the trumpeter leading a quintet featuring Jackie McLean on alto saxophone, Bobby Timmons on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Blakey on drums. The album, which features four songs, includes songs by Cal Massey, McLean, and Morgan’s tribute to Blue Note’s founders on “The Lion And The Wolff.”
This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.
Lee Morgan hadn’t run a Blue Note session in over two years when he entered Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on April 28, 1960 to record Lee-way, an album that would become a staple in his expansive discography alongside classics like Search for the New Land, City Lights, The Cooker, and more.
Lee-way marks one of Morgan’s most celebrated releases, with AllMusic critic Scott Yanow writing, “The music is essentially hard bop with a strong dose of soul.”
The trumpeter began recording for Blue Note Records in 1959 when he recorded Lee Morgan Indeed!, alongside saxophonist Clarence Sharpe, Horace Silver on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums.
A year later, around the same time he was playing in Dizzy Gillespie’s band, Morgan recorded his first major breakthrough with City Lights, an album that features Curtis Fuller (trombone), George Coleman (alto and tenor sax), Ray Bryant (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Art Taylor (drums). That release includes three compositions by Morgan’s mentor, saxophonist and composer Benny Golson.
City Lights, much like Lee-way, has reemerged in the spotlight of late, as Blue Note Records reissued that album as part of its Tone Poet Vinyl Edition series back in February. City Lights began an all-time run that would continue with Lee-way and last until his tragic death in 1972.
Shop Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series’s music on vinyl or CD now.
