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Frank Morgan

It is a real rarity for a jazz musician to have his career interrupted for three decades and then be able to make a complete comeback. Frank Morgan showed a great deal of promise in his early days, but it was a long time before he could fulfill his potential. The son of guitarist Stanley Morgan (who played with the Ink Spots), he took up clarinet and alto early on. Morgan moved to Los Angeles in 1947 and was approached by Duke Ellington who wanted the then 15-year-old Frank to go on the road with his band. Frank's father wanted his son to finish school so the Ellington gig never materialized, but by the time he was 17, Frank was working at LA's Club Alabam, backing the likes of Josephine Baker and Billie Holiday. Morgan worked on the bop scene of early-'50s Los Angeles, recording with Teddy Charles (1953) and Kenny Clarke (1954), and under his own name for GNP in 1955.

Unfortunately, around that same time Frank followed his idol and mentor Charlie "Bird" Parker into heroin addiction, and spent most of the next thirty years serving time for thefts to support his habit. Yet except for periods in the Los Angeles County jail system, he never strayed too far from music. At most penal institutions, there were bands made up of inmates, and Morgan was greeted as a celebrity. He was constantly made gifts of mouthpieces, drugs, food, cigarettes. "The greatest big band I ever played with was in San Quentin. Art Pepper and I were proud of that band. We had Jimmy Bunn and Frank Butler, and some other musicians who were known and some who weren't, but they could play. We played every Saturday night for what they called a Warden's Tour, which showed paying visitors only the cleanest cell blocks and exercise yards. But people would take that tour just to hear the band."

When he was not incarcerated Frank performed occasionally around LA, but it was not until 1985 that Morgan, with the help of artist and future wife Rosalinda Kolb, managed to leave his life of "questionable interests" behind him and once again concentrate on his music. Resuming his recording career after a thirty-year hiatus, Frank was rediscovered and his unique history, combined with his equally unique sound and story-telling ability on his horn, made him a media star. He made multiple appearances on the Today Show in the '80s and '90s; starred in "Prison-Made Tuxedos," an off-Broadway play about his life, in 1987; was the first subject of Jane Pauley's "Real Life" primetime TV show on NBC in 1990; and won the Downbeat Critics Poll for Best Alto Saxophonist in 1991.

Frank Morgan & George Cables: Montreal Memories

Read "Montreal Memories" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
January 29, 2019

Alto saxophonist Frank Morgan and pianist George Cables, two seasoned pros at the top of their game, joined forces to map this superb concert performance at the 1989 Montreal Jazz Festival. Morgan--unchained at last from his debilitating heroin addiction and four years removed from prison--is a wellspring of creativity and passion, while Cables, eleven years Morgan's junior, matches him stride for stride and note for note, much to the delight of a hip and enthusiastic audience at the Theatre Port-Royal. ...

Album Review

Frank Morgan and George Cables: Montreal Memories

Read "Montreal Memories" reviewed by Peter J. Hoetjes

by Peter J. Hoetjes
December 6, 2018

Montreal Memories is a duet album recorded at Theatre Port Royal on July 1, 1989, featuring two of the most talented jazz artists of any generation: alto saxophonist Frank Morgan; and pianist George Cables. This is the second duet album they've released, the first being Contemporary's Double Image in 1987. A jazz duet is a format which invites intimacy and profundity, more than the typical quartet or quintet setup. Two musicians must really know each other, to be ...

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Big Band in the Sky

Remembering Frank Morgan: Tears, Laughter and Music in Culver City

by Chuck Koton
January 17, 2008

Frank Morgan Memorial Celebration The Jazz Bakery Los Angeles (Culver City), CA January 5, 2008 2:00-5:30 P.M.

A memorial celebration is always a bittersweet affair. There is an inescapable sadness over the passing of a friend, but there is also joy in remembering the spirit of the departed who will remain forever in our hearts. On Saturday, January 5th at the Jazz Bakery in Culver City, the great altoist Frank Morgan was ...

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Album Review

Frank Morgan: A Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Standard, Vol. 3

Read "A Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Standard, Vol. 3" reviewed by John Barron

by John Barron
June 16, 2007

Frank Morgan is unquestionably a name synonymous with bebop. Since his well publicized re-emergence on the jazz scene in 1985, the veteran alto saxophonist has kept the flames of a bygone era burning through extensive recordings and performances. A Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 3 documents one of the last great bop trailblazers in a comfortable club setting playing a familiar set of straight-ahead chestnuts with a veteran group of all star sidemen. This third ...

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Album Review

Frank Morgan: Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 3

Read "Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 3" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 30, 2007

Frank Morgan's 2003 engagement at New York's Jazz Standard has been a fruitful performance for the 73-year-old alto saxophonist, yielding City Nights: Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 1, Raising the Standard: Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 2 and now Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 3.

The jazz recorded on these three discs is bebop from the source. It is no mistake that Morgan is well versed in Charlie Parker's “Ornithology, having studied the ...

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Multiple Reviews

Frank Morgan: A Night in the Life & Reflections

by Terrell Kent Holmes
May 5, 2007

Frank Morgan A Night in the Life: Live at the Jazz Standard, Volume 3 HighNote 2007 Frank Morgan Reflections HighNote 2007

The irrepressible alto sax man Frank Morgan just keeps a cookin' and a cookin'. He's still vibrantly recording and gigging into his 70s and has lost nary a step, as ...

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Album Review

Frank Morgan: Reflections

Read "Reflections" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 16, 2007

Alto saxophonists Frank Morgan and the late Art Pepper have much in common outside their chosen instrument. Both were active on the West Coast during the rage of Charlie Parker and bebop. Both possessed a beautifully spearmint-dry ice tone in their early careers and both were unsurpassed as ballad interpreters. Both musicians recorded for Contemporary Records, often with the same sidemen. Both were heroin addicts who interrupted their respective careers for decades with incarceration before making successful comebacks. Pepper's began ...

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Obituary

Buddy Collette Funeral / Wake / Memorial Services Info: L.A. Jazzman Mentor of Eric Dolphy, Frank Morgan, Charles Lloyd Dies at 89

Source: JAZZzology by Richard Watters
September 30, 2010

On Sunday September 19, 2010, Grammy-nominated Buddy Collette (William Marcel Collette), Los Angeles-based tenor saxophonist, flautist, and clarinetist, a major jazz presence on the West Coast jazz and blues scene, passed away aged 89 years...Having notably collaborated in post-war L.A. with the likes of jazz icons, saxophonist Dexter Gordon, drummer Chico Hamilton, and his lifelong friend, bassist Charles Mingus, Buddy Collette helped to erase the color barriers which separated black and white musicians at that time in the California city ...
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Recording

John Hicks and Frank Morgan - Twogether (High Note)

Source: Master of a Small House
April 27, 2010

The passing of pianist John Hicks and altoist Frank Morgan within a year of each other was a sad blow to the High Note roster and the jazz community writ large. Both men had enjoyed a late career renaissance via the label and Morgan, in particular, experienced an artistic renewal through a series of critically-acclaimed recordings capped by a three-volume document of a stand at The Jazz Standard. This set is something of a posthumous swan song for each player, ...
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Obituary

The Function of Jazz

Source: All About Jazz
May 8, 2008

Abstraction under siege in a utilitarian world

Some current jazz-related events have got me thinking about the necessities of life. A quintet featuring saxists Frank Morgan and Sonny Fortune at Catalina's. A benefit for the stroke rehabilitation of reedman Buddy Collette is happening at the same place on Sunday. A tribute to the late pianist Horace Tapscott is scheduled at the Jazz Bakery. There was a benefit for sax legend Teddy Edwards a couple of months ago. And windman Charles ...
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Recording

Patrick Langham's CD Debut Features Final Studio Appearance by Jazz Master Frank Morgan

Source: All About Jazz
April 14, 2008

University of the Pacific jazz professor Patrick Langham recently recorded a debut CD that marks historical significance as the final studio appearance by legend Frank Morgan. After spending over 30 years within the California prison system, saxophonist Frank Morgan began a new chapter in life. His release in 1985 signaled a comeback to the jazz scene and a strong desire to warn young jazz musicians about the hazards of drug use. During his participation in the 2007 Brubeck Institute Summer ...
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Obituary

Memorial Service for Jazz Great Frank Morgan at the Artists' Quarter in St. Paul on December 23, 2007

Source: All About Jazz
December 20, 2007

Saxophonist Frank Morgan will be remembered in words and music on the 74th anniversary of his birth. Frank Morgan, the legendary alto saxophonist who died at age 73 of complications from colon cancer at his Minneapolis home on December 14, will be remembered at a memorial service on Sunday, December 23, at the Artists' Quarter jazz club in St. Paul. Frank Morgan was born in Minneapolis and returned there in 2005 to live with his cousin Melanie Taylor and her ...
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Obituary

Frank Morgan - Memorial Celebration at the Jazz Bakery

Source: All About Jazz
December 18, 2007

FRANK MORGAN - MEMORIAL CELEBRATION AT THE JAZZ BAKERY JANUARY 5TH, 2008 2:00PM- 5:30PM Open to public Sammie Roberts Jazz with support from the Jazz Bakery and Mars Jazz is hosting a memorial celebration for legendary bebop saxophonist Frank Morgan. The memorial will be held at the Jazz Bakery, 3233 Helms Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90034 2:00pm- 5:30pm FRANK MORGAN, poll-winning alto saxophonist and Bird's protg, was a master interpreter of bebop and ballads. After recovering from a ...
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Obituary