Pete C

I thought Morgan became a great ballad player.

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Frank Morgan. He had lots of time to woodshed.

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I just noticed that the thread title is skipping, or at least stuttering.

I'm not familiar with that album, but do you know his late solo sessions? Amazing playing, a sort of baroque approach to bebop, and lots of newer original compositions.

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With most brass players there are diminishing returns in chops/embouchure after a certain age that don't generally seem to affect reed players. I think with reed players the downside is on breathing and sometimes intonation, but there are so many reed players who kept strong and vital sounds into their 80s or even 90s.

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I agree totally. The later trumpet playing is sublime. The fifties recordings appeal to me more for Chet's singing (much better back then) and for Russ Freeman's fabulous piano playing. Many sax players changed in the wake of Trane. I once saw a James Moody concert where he played bebop on alto and flute but had a Traneish modal approach on tenor. Many piano players changed in the wake of Bill Evans. I think Marian McPartland is a good example.

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Not sure what you mean by flattened, but his earlier playing certainly had more swing elements. Not only Cole but lots of Teddy Wilson, which he always kept in his touch.

Sorry I missed THIS; I wasn't aware that TEST is still a going concern. I once stumbled upon them playing on the platform of the Astor Place subway station some years ago and missed several trains.

If I had position on the judgment day...

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To my ears his sound and approach was pretty steady from the '60s onward (with maybe some more subtlety coming in his ballad playing), but he was already a monster on those early sides with Fats Navarro. He seems to have made major strides very quickly from the Dolphy date in 1963 to Larry Young's Unity in '65, where his sound is already starting to emerge from the shadow of Hubbard. Not sure one could really safely say any trumpeter was emulating Lee Morgan that early in Morgan's career. Don't you think there might have just been similar influences on both of their early sounds?

He developed more comprehensive chops, but gave up the adventurousness of his playing and composition of the Milestone period. But while his own work with Trane was great from the beginning, I think his Impulse albums were generally unremarkable. I saw Roy Hargrove last summer, and I found that he had finally grown into a truly expressive artist (and had put aside most of his silly stage shtick). Plenty of trumpeters had major chops very early on, and then grew into them.

In most cases greater depth comes with age and experience.

I can't think of too many who didn't.

Is it just my imagination, or is Herbie channeling Mal Waldron on his solo & comping on "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise"?

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I won't try to claim any cred on hip hop, but I assume Doo Bop is as bad a hip hop album as it is a jazz album.