Lee Morgan - City Lights

Trumpeter Lee Morgan was just 19 years old and still early on in his lengthy Blue Note association when he cut his brightly swinging album City Lights in August 1957. The date featured a wonderful sextet with Curtis Fuller on trombone, George Coleman on alto and tenor saxophone, Ray Bryant on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. The brilliant young trumpet prodigy was still turning heads with his show-stealing performances as part of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band, and this excellent 5-song set presented further evidence of his irrepressible talent. The album includes three compositions by Morgan’s mentor Benny Golson (“City Lights,” “Tempo De Waltz,” “Just By Myself”) as well as a stunning ballad performance of the standard “You’re Mine You” and the groovy closer “Kin Folk” by Gigi Gryce.