Lee Morgan - Tom Cat

When a major label records an album with a star-studded cast in 1964 and it isn't released until 1980, something has gone wrong. So it was in this case. BlueNote had become a victim of its own success with the Lee Morgan album Sidewinder and all energy was invested in finding another album that would make it onto the pop charts and into early evening TV shows. The much more complex album Tom Cat was simply forgotten. However, more complex certainly doesn't mean complicated in this case, because this is a wonderful bop album with a top line-up. Besides Lee Morgan on trumpet we hear Jackie McLean on alto saxophone, Curtis Fuller on trombone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass and Art Blakey, who actually didn't want to be active as a sideman anymore, sat on drums. In retrospect, not even the BlueNote bosses knew why this album had not been released before and why the year 1980 had to come to make it a success

Price: $24.98