This 8 disc (or 12 lp limited edition vinyl) box set is the complete collection of music that Lee Morgan recorded with his band of Bennie Maupin/ts-bcl-fl, Harold Mabern/p, Jymie Merritt/b and Mickey Roker/dr at the Lighthouse in July, 1970. It’s musically significant simply because it is almost the last thing Morgan ever recorded, as he was shot just over a year later. It’s also significant as it catches Morgan as he was evolving from being known as one of the foremost hard bop trumpeters to entering the fiery world of modal sounds. During this period in jazz, artists were either starting to plug in and go the fusion route of jazz-rock a la Miles and Corea, going free and atonal, or holding on via the avalanche of advanced modal tunes, with very few artists making it strictly as boppers. Morgan kept acoustic, and changed gears into overdrive with this incendiary team.
This famous gig has been issued in a number of incarnations, the last being a 3 disc set. This full boxed set contains no new songs from the previous set except for a previously unreleased take of the classic “Ceora”, and there is still the sole cameo of drummer Jack DeJohnette on the July 10 last set on the marathon “Speedball”. Except for a rapid gallop of the hard hitting read of “The Sidewinder” and muscular “Ceora”, the material reveals Morgan in new wineskins, with the alternative versions of the other evenings quite thrilling. Roker is stampeding with the horns on “Beehive” and Mabern floats on the misty “Absolutions”. Maupin sighs and groans on his moody “Neophilia” and digs deep during “Peyote”. Morgan’s tone is still filled with burning coals, blistering on the relentless “416 East 10th Street” as he spits out notes like lightning bolts, while his flugelhorn is fluffy and soft on the serenely swinging “Yunjanna”.
As with the times, all of the songs give plenty of solo spaces and excursions, clocking in between 11-18 minutes, with the marathon “Absolutions” floating for 22. This is when music was taken in viscerally, and the listeners were to ride the musical waves like longboarders in Oahu. For one of his last gigs, these 4 sets demonstrate that, up to the end, surf was up for Morgan.