Lee Morgan
Day 20
#25 – Edward Lee Morgan (1938–1972). American hard bop trumpeter. Albums include: The Sidewinder (1963), Search for the New Land (1964) and with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Moanin’ (1958).
In 1963, Morgan recorded The Sidewinder, which became his greatest commercial success. After years of prolific recording, Morgan was killed at Slug’s Saloon, a jazz club in New York City’s East Village by his common-law wife Helen More, who shot him. He was 33 years old. After writing down these facts I realised ‘33’ could look like ‘EE’ written backwards. Writing the whole word backwards looked odd, so I started to look at how I could use ‘Sidewinder’. This led to the idea of twisting the name. It also made an abstract ‘L’ and allowed the introduction of the ‘33’ idea. It looked a little boring on its own, so after trying it bleeding off the page, I added some other similar shapes which helped add energy and the suggestion of other instruments coming into the music.
1.5 hours
Early sketches
Listen...
to excerpt from ‘The Sidewinder’.