Track Listing

1. Yes I Can, No You Can't
2. Trapped
3. Speedball
4. The Gigolo
5. You Go To My Head
6. The Gigolo (Alternate take)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44129 in Music
• Brand: Lee
• Released on: 2006-02-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

World's Greatest "Gigolo"
Recently out-of-print (though still easily found) it is great to have Lee Morgan's "Gigolo" available once again via this RVG Edition. Don't let the cheesy title fool you -- "The Gigolo" is classic, thoughtful hard bop from a band of Blue Note greats. This disc, recorded over two sessions in the summer of 1965, features the quintet of Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, Harold Mabern on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, Billy Higgins on drums, and of course, Lee on trumpet. After the success of "The Sidewinder," all of Lee's albums began with a rocking soul jazz number, and "Yes I Can, No You Can't" fits the bill on "The Gigolo." Next of the album's four Morgan originals is the bright and sunny "Trapped," followed by the quick-hitting "Speedball," a tune that Lee would perform consistently live for the rest of his life. (There's a great version on "Live At The Lighthouse" -- see my review.) The stunning, reflective title-track (an alternate take is additionally included) is next, and the performances conclude in very un-Lee Morgan fashion with the medium-tempo ballad "You Go To My Head," the album's only standard. With "The Gigolo," Morgan demonstrates that he has once again found the winning formula for a successful jazz album.

Going Past the Cheese, Gettin' to the Core
As much as I love "the procrastinator", "cornbread", and "the sidewinder", this is the definative Lee Morgan album for me. As with all post-sidewinder albums the knock on this one by the jazz-police (the great defenders of cliche and self-important snobbery) is the sidewinderesque first track: "Yes I can, No you can't". For people who can look past labels (and the head of the tune) what you'll find with this track is something very similar to Hank Mobley's "Dippin'", namely a very soulful, very engaging, slice of jazz-funk, done as only Lee Morgan could do it. However the person who makes this album a classic isn't so much the usual suspect of excellence: Wayne Shorter and his brilliant compositional skills and jagged tenor, but rather the pure-hot-fire drumming of Billy Higgins. I think a pretty good case could be made that no one in the history of jazz was a player in more quality recorded sessions than Higgins, one of the two or three greatest ever drummers in jazz. This is a man who could truely do it all, from the high speed Tony Williams like drumming on this album, to, fast forward forty years, his verging on languid, anticipating-improv with Charles Lloyd. Billy Higgins kept the fire burning for a long time, and under many different jazz-pots, but with this album we get Higgins at his most vital, his most alive and immediate. We also get Lee Morgan at his most engaged, no hint here of some of the going-through-the-motions-tiredness of some sideman sessions, or the hesitant tone of late sixties post-swimming accident Lee. This is Lee reaching into his bag of tricks and shooting them all out of his shining horn. He even throws in a ballad just to show that he can. In short this is an album for people who can see past the cheese of the title, the tired criticisms of the self-superior, and who can deal with an album on its own terms. If you can do that what you'll find is a master on the trumpet doing what he does best. And that is a thing to behold.

Great work, Lee.
A trumpeter friend of mine recommended this album with Cornbread when I asked him for two Lee Morgan recommendations. After listening to Lee Morgan's work at 19 on Coltrane's Blue Train album, I have been a big fan. Every track on The Gigolo is solid. I highly recommend it.