Billboard : 05/20/1957
Score of 76

Morgan, one of the most promising of trumpet moderns, in another fine set of performances. Aided by a “cooking” rhythm section, and general high level of ensemble and solo playing – i.e., H. Silver, H. Mobley – this swinging mainstream package should do well with jazz buyers if shown. … Morgan certainly is someone to watch closely in months and years to come.

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Cash Box : 06/01/1957

The sextet, headed by the penetrating trumpet of 18-year-old Lee Morgan, includes such familiar names in the jazz catalogue as Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Horace Silver (piano) and Paul Chambers (bass). This stellar line-up doesn’t deter Morgan from taking in a major share of the spotlight with skillful, sometimes with a trumpet joke, and search work (Latin Hangover). Excellent jazz release.

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Down Beat : 07/25/1957
Dom Cerulli : 4.5 stars

Chambers very nearly strolls off with honors in this fine collection of well-integrated small-group playing. He is virtually a section by himself. In the Benny GolsonLatin Hangover, particularly, Chambers wails so behind the horn soloists that the excitement they provide is that much more intensified. Notice, too, how he drops behind when Silver solos, only to return with vital punch when the ensemble or the horns individually come back. This set is an excellent example of tasteful and at the same time virile bassing.

Lee comes through on the promise he showed earlier with a dazzling variety of moods and a constant, sure flow of ideas. He conveys the impression of knowing exactly what he wants, and of getting it, at all times. That may sound paradoxical, but there are many instances of soloists building illogically or to a contrived climax.

Here, Lee makes excellent improvisatory use of the frameworks provided him by Golson and Owen Marshall (Owen’s contributions are the enigmatically titled His Sister and D’s Fink). Morgan is particularly effective on Latin Hangover, where he blows flowing, many-noted phrases with an implied Latin beat.

He is humorous on Whisper Not, a piece in the mood of Valse Triste and one of the most tuneful and easy-to-recall originals heard in many months. On Where Am I?, a moody ballad, he seems impatient and ready to burst the bonds of tempo, but he doesn’t. The mood is never shattered.

Mobley and Rodgers blend well in the heads, with Mobley’s smooth soloing a needed contrast to the often abrupt and angular Rodgers alto. Kenny blows with force and sometimes in harsh, clipped phrases. On His Sister, particularly, the moon-like structure is embellished by Rodgers with cascades of the brittle phrases. It is his best solo on the sides.

Silver is very melodic on Where Am I? and is romping on Hangover. On Fink, he logically builds and extends a three-note figure into a sparkling solo. Persip is excellent throughout and effective on his brief solo on Hep, and the fours on Sister.

One final note: the writing by Golson and Marshall is bright, refreshing, and of enough substance to provide the soloists with material for blowing, but at the same time leaving behind the impression of unity and musical thought. Some of the thought behind the handling of the six tunes here, if applied to otherwise strictly blowing sessions, could go a long way in making those scatter-shot records that much more valid as examples of contemporary thought. The feel of a complete unit here is too often lacking on similar small-group sessions.

This would have been a full five if the high standard of writing and blowing established on Side 1 were sustained on Side 2. But you can’t hit a home run every time up. Highly recommended.

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Liner Notes by Leonard Feather

If you are au courant with the new and fresher developments in jazz territory, chances are that by now you may have made the acquaintance of Lee Morgan – either through an in-person encounter or through Blue Note LP 1538, which marked Lee’s record debut. However, in case you are among that square minority that may echo: “Lee Morgan? Who’s that? Where is she singing?”, it might be advisable to preface these notes with a brief recap to the effect that Lee is a male trumpet player, born in Philadelphia during Dizzy’s second year with the Teddy Hill band, born two years after Roy Eldridge left Fletcher Henderson – born 16 years after Louis Armstrong joined King Oliver‘s band in Chicago; born, in fact, just three years before bop itself began to crystallize at Monroe’s Upton House and Minton’s. But Lee Morgan is fast showing sings of being ready of rivaling the very men who created bop, a style that took shape during his infancy.

Lee had his first big-time experience in the summer of 1956, subbing briefly in the Jazz Messengers. A little later, not long after his eighteenth birthday, he joined the Dizzy Gillespie band. While in New York with Gillespie he recorded , for which some of the original music was written by Dizzy’s tenor man, Benny Golson, and a Philadelphia friend of Lee’s named Owen Marshall.

For this new session Lee again called on these writers. Since it was Golson who contributed most of the manuscript for this date, a few notes on him might be appropriate. Benny too is a Philadelphian, born in 1929. Starting on piano and taking up tenor at 14, he studied at Howard University in Washington. His first road job was a rhythm-and-blues assignment with Bull Moose Jackson, whose band then included Tadd Dameron. After working with Tadd’s own band in Atlantic City during the summer of ’53 and then with Lionel Hampton‘s band (the one that had Clifford Brown, Quincy Jones and Gigi Gryce) he played in a Clarence Robinson revue, worked briefly with Johnny Hodges‘ band and was then enveloped again in r&b, spending two years with Earl Bostic. This gave him his first real writing experience. In July 1956 he replaced Ernie Wilkins in the Gillespie band; with Diz he toured Latin America soon after.

Benny’s delightfully melodic theme Whisper Not opens this set. The melody is basically simple, but with sensitive and attractive chord changes. Lee’s horn is heard muted; Kenny Rodgers, a promising 19-year-old alto man from Philadelphia, takes the next solo, followed by Hank Mobley and Horace Silver. Notice the curious staccato unison ensemble effects and the impact of the rhythm suspension in the first bar of the release.

Latin Hangover is another Golson theme with an exuberant line recalling the mood of Cole Porter‘s I Love You. Lee plays a strong, confident ensemble lead. Hank’s tenor is loose-jointed, confidently swinging; the low note that starts bar 25 of his first chorus typifies his ability to dig for effects without appearing mannered. On his second chorus he swings more forcefully, leading into a jaunty, technically brilliant Morgan solo. Note Lee’s fine use of triples on one passage here. Everyone has a workout here – Horace, Kenny, the astonishing Paul Chambers (pizzicato today) and Charlie Persip, the wondrous drummer from the Gillespie ranks, cooking with the sticks.

His Sister (wish we could tell you whose sister, but Owen Marshall wasn’t talking as we went to press) has a melody whose most interesting characteristic is the seven-note pick-up, used without rhythm accompaniment and repeated to good effect. Kenny Rodgers reveals himself on a splendid solo as one of Philadelphia’s most promising young alto men, a distinction he shared with Clarence Sharpe, who played this role on Lee Morgan’s previous LP. You’ll notice a touch of half-valve humor a la Clark Terry on Lee’s solo. Some competitive fours between Lee and Persip precede the closing ensemble.

Strictly Hep, another Golson original, was described by Benny as follows: “There’s a little gimmick in the bass line, if you listen carefully, that give it a feel of going contrary to the direction of the melody.” The contemplative yet smoothly moving line of the theme leads into solos by Hank, Kenny and Horace – a touch of humor in the Silver solo this time – and Lee, first with rhythm only and then with the horns supplying a background to help reinforce the sense of dramatic climax that builds during his solo. Persip’s sticks again take over before the finale.

Where Am I is what Benny calls “a melancholy ballad – I was in this kind of a mood that day.” This is mainly Lee’s vehicle, displaying him in a more subdued mood, applying the techniques and harmonic subtlety of modern jazz to the mod and manner of a well-constructed ballad. Horace also is heard to advantage.

D’s Fink, which closes the set (once again we are at a loss to explain an Owen Marshall title) is one of those minor-to-major lines with Latin and regular rhythm alternating. Lee goes into his solo gently with the preliminary break, then takes off like an expert diver who has swum in these cool waters before. Again you will observe his complete control of the instrument, bolstered by a sense of phrasing and continuity that must be unique in the world of teen-aged jazz (it seems almost absurd to associate him with a term that normally connotes immaturity). Mobley, Rodgers, Silver and Chambers all wail before D’s Fink comes to a sudden end.

In case your first impression of Lee Morgan, on his previous release, led you to expect great things from this surprising new talent, this new set will undoubtedly confirm that impression. And in case your earlier judgment was qualified in some manner such as “He plays fine for a youngster” we feel that by now you should be ready to admit he plays fine even if he were sixty-nine.