In Thomas’s audiotape, her recollection is so tender and so sad. It’s the encore Morgan never had the chance to do. And so he died, and More went to jail on a manslaughter charge. Morgan might have survived his wounds on a different night. And it’s Lee Morgan’s squeak at the 0:59 mark of Moanin’ that gives this art form its ineffable quality. He was strung out and freezing on the street, and she brought him in from the cold. This movie is poignant; the personalities on display here are all beautiful, brave people. Synopsis. In a New York City jazz club, Lee Morgan was shot and killed by Helen Moore…or Helen Morgan, as she was known. When Shorter explains using alcohol in the early days of his live playing to create a space for himself within both the music and the physical venue where he’d play, it’s a remarkable insight into the working life of a jazz musician at the time. The Cruelest Month, Part 2: Love Song to a Genie, Nomadland, I May Destroy You Take Top Honors at 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards, It's Alive! He had taken to bandstands before he was even 18. To that end, Kasper Collin’s I Called Him Morgan isn’t just the greatest jazz documentary since Let’s Get Lost, it’s a documentary-as-jazz. She blew him away in between sets at a Greenwich Village cabaret because not only was he cheating on her but had the temerity to bring his mistress with him to the club that night. I t’s a tactic of many a modern screenwriter to parlay the high drama of classical tragedy into a more approachable and relatable template. Unfortunately, like Bix Beiderbecke and Clifford Brown, he died way too young. Collin turns to that plain, unlabelled white tape, marred by squeaks and hisses, and from it emerges the ghost of a voice. Commentary from Wayne Shorter, Tootie Heath, Larry Ridley and others offer insight, but not much can top the swirl of images. The cassette, full of feedback, revealing More’s voice as slurry, sharp, tinged with regret, sometimes fond, and more, serves as the only narration in the movie. Helen Morgan died in March 1996, and her cassette recording of her story is the basis for I Called Him Morgan. More importantly, do you know the story of his life? It’s an amazing coda to a jazz musician’s life. Remarkable photographs set to music … a still of Lee and Helen Morgan from I Called Him Morgan, ith the best jazz recordings you recognise the beginning and know where it’s going to wind up, but it’s the road there that’s unpredictable. Spellbinding, mercurial, hallucinatory, exuberant, tragic … aw hell, man, those are a lot of heavy words, but have you heard Lee Morgan’s music? Kasper Collin’s spellbinding documentary reveals the tender and tragic tale of hard bop trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, Last modified on Mon 3 Dec 2018 10.25 EST. He has written for a host of other publications and resides in Brooklyn. I Called Him Morgan Review. I Called Morgan is a dexterous work of fusion: it's jazz history meets true crime. “I Called Him Morgan” is a more complex love story than the song's morality tale of marital infidelity and the harm to both individuals in a relationship. 3 talking about this. alexlancastle19 August 13, 2017 August 13, 2017 Uncategorized. I Called Him Morgan doubles as a seductive tribute to its subject's jazz passion as well as an absorbing look at a fatally doomed relationship. It’s fitting that Kasper Collin’s excellent documentary I Called Him Morgan, a sleek, sorrowful elegy for the prodigiously gifted, tragically slain bop trumpeter Lee Morgan, is as much a visual and textural triumph as it is a gripping feat of reportage. I Called Him Morgan review – jazz star's story comes in from the cold Kasper Collin’s spellbinding documentary reveals the tender and tragic tale of hard bop trumpeter Lee Morgan and … There’s no material about Morgan’s ability to fit in to both a somewhat commercial iteration of jazz and free modes of playing. Mar 30, 2017. In 2016, Swedish film writer/director Kasper Collin released "I Called Him Morgan," a beautiful and poignant portrayal of Lee Morgan's professional life that started as a sideman at age 18 to the great Dizzy Gillespie. “I Called Him Morgan” evokes times and places, and the sorrows and joys of the jazz life in those times and places, with real integrity. I Called Him Morgan ensures listeners of Lee Morgan and newcomers to the sound will feel the loss too, not only for the life of an American giant and sessions never recorded, but for the gone world, when jazz defined excellence, style, and ultimately rebellion. While Morgan’s output as the leader of his own working group is outstanding (may I recommend to you The Sidewinder, The Gigolo or perhaps even The Rumproller) he was also a linchpin member of the classic Blue Note sound overseen by producers Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff and engineer Rudy Van Gelder. “I knew the story,” Thomas says. 1h 32min | Documentary, Drama, History | 24 March 2017 (USA) 1:48 | Trailer. “I Called Him Morgan,” a suave and poignant documentary by Kasper Collin, dusts off the details of Morgan’s life and death and brushes away the sensationalism, too. I Called Him Morgan evokes times and places, and the sorrows and joys of the jazz life in those times and places, with real integrity. She got a job at an answering service, and her apartment, located near all the jazz hotspots on West 53rd street, became something of a haven for musicians – mostly because she took pride in her cooking and was ready to feed anyone who came to her door. Read full review. The rest is taken up with interviews and archival footage. Once he was cleaned up, they moved to the Bronx and he restarted his career, with her as his manager. By the late ‘60s he was once more exercising his musical voice with less self-consciousness about scoring a hit. ‘I Called Him Morgan’ Review: A Hard Bop Life—and Death A documentary looks at trumpeter Lee Morgan, the wife who loved him and the New York jazz … For those who don’t know much about jazz, this sound is what you think about when you think about jazz. I Called Him Morgan is a 2016 Swedish produced documentary film written and directed by Kasper Collin which gives an account of the life of and relation between jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen Morgan, later responsible for his murder in February 1972. “She wasn’t academically distinguished, but she was definitely street smart,” Thomas recalls. Wayne Shorter, Tootie Heath, Larry Ridley and others offer insight, she! 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