Hard Bop, Heroin, & Heartache: Lee Morgan's Jazz Story
Taught by Christopher Bussmann
Christopher Bussmann is a Brooklyn based librarian by day and a jazz cultural historian, writer, educator, and former broadcaster by night. Christopher runs Bop And Beyond, a jazz blog dedicated to the bebop and hard bop sounds of the mid-twentieth century. His former radio show aired for over ten years in Rochester, Montreal, and Brooklyn. You can visit his site at bopandbeyond.wordpress.com and on twitter at @bopandbeyond.
"There are no natural barriers. It's all music. It's either hip or it ain't." - Lee Morgan
Lee Morgan first picked up a trumpet at thirteen. Turned pro at fifteen. Signed a record deal at eighteen. And joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at twenty. As his career took off, so did his heroin addiction. When Morgan staged his big comeback in jazz, he was only twenty-five. The resulting album, The Sidewinder, became one of the biggest selling jazz albums of all-time. This class will track the triumphs and tragedies of Morgan's career: from his precocious debut to his murder at age thirty-three. One of the biggest names in jazz in his day, Lee Morgan's extreme talent has taken an unfortunate backseat to his life-long struggles and untimely demise. In this class, we will take a long hard look at these struggles while listening to some of the seminal hard bop that Morgan recorded as both a leader and side-man.
