Soul Stream Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Anybody care to share any thoughts on Sonic Boom? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 (edited) Love it ! I think the team of Morgan and David Newman is a very compatible one. Fathead plays with a harder edge than usual on this session - a typical BN late 60s hard bop gem. Cedar Walton in particular is also on good form too (but there again, isn't he always?) Just popped my King vinyl of this on the platter. Side 1 smokes - 'Sneaky Pete', 'The Mercenary' and the title track. Fathead on particularly good form on these. A great ballad on side 2 'I'll Never Be The Same' featuring fine trumpet work to round it all off in the fashion of Morgan's better Blue Notes. Edited September 8, 2005 by sidewinder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stereojack Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Anybody care to share any thoughts on Sonic Boom? ← Special for the presence of David "Fathead" Newman, not a Blue Note regular. Musically, the album is consistent with many other Lee Morgan dates. Another session that sat in the can for at least 15 years before finally being released in the early 1980's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh1958 Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 (edited) I really like the first side of the LP (Sneaky Pete, the Mercenary, Sonic Boom). The Lee Morgan/David Newman pairing is also on Lonnie Smith's Think. Edited September 8, 2005 by kh1958 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sal Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Its a fine album, but IMO not really different from any other Lee Morgan or hard bop session coming out at the time. The longer I listen to jazz, the more I appreciate the more unique sessions, like "Search for the New Land" or "The Procrastinator". But still, for Blue Note hard bop, its a good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tooter Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 (edited) I remember Peter Clayton introducing "Sneaky" on his radio show "Jazz Record Requests" many years ago and suggesting it might be his personal signature tune. And yet a less sneaky sounding person I could not imagine. The programme's never been the same since he died. He presided there for a long, long time and left a great legacy of announcing gems all over. I agree, a nice album. I like all of it, not only side 1. Edited September 8, 2005 by tooter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcy62 Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 I tend to agree with Sal, not the best BN Morgan date, but, hey, I never heard Lee playing 'bad', and the other players slightly changed the taste of 'typical BN hard bop'. One curiousity, I can hear some 'Jarrettesque' moanin on the right channel on side 1 of my BN LT record, is it Higgins? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parkertown Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Lee Morgan's Sonic Boom, whatya think? I think I should listen to this one today...been awhile. I've got the TOCJ. Oh, and Porcy62, I do believe you're correct about it being Higgins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Anybody care to share any thoughts on Sonic Boom? ← My thought is a simple one - What's not to like? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Well, it blew out a couple of my windows, and repeated exposure could result in some permanent hearing loss, but yeah, I like it just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartyJazz Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 Anybody care to share any thoughts on Sonic Boom? ← My thought is a simple one - What's not to like? ← Well, for one thing, I've never been a Fathead fan. Much too R&B for my tastes. Does he play in a more "Blue Note" type of vein, or is it more of the same? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidewinder Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 It's still very much Fathead but in a harder vein than usual. The work here is somewhat analogous to more adventurous tracks like 'The Clincher' on his Atlantic dates of this period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosco Posted September 8, 2005 Report Share Posted September 8, 2005 I ordered this on Monday. I'll let you know... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morganized Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 I tend to agree with Sal, not the best BN Morgan date, but, hey, I never heard Lee playing 'bad', and the other players slightly changed the taste of 'typical BN hard bop'. One curiousity, I can hear some 'Jarrettesque' moanin on the right channel on side 1 of my BN LT record, is it Higgins? ← Don't know about the "moanin' " but I am in agreement with the everything else. You just don't get any bad Lee Morgan.....just some better than others!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted September 12, 2005 Report Share Posted September 12, 2005 Well, for one thing, I've never been a Fathead fan. ← Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Anyone else notice an odd glitch in Cuscuna's portion of the liner notes? He writes (or rather Blue Note today has him writing:) "'Sonic Boom' [i.e. the piece itself, not the whole album] ... was recorded on April 28, exactly two weeks later [than the other tunes on the date]. For some reason this seems to have been a pattern with a number of Lee Morgan dates. The band comes in, gets one tune and suddenly the session dissipates. The same personnel comes back a week or two later and runs through all the tunes effortlessly." Which, given what they have Cuscuna saying in the first sentence, makes no sense. But on the original LP issue of "Sonic Boom," that portion of Cuscuna's notes begins: "'Sonic Boom' ... was recorded on April 14, 1967, while all the other tunes were recorded exactly two weeks later" -- which makes the next two sentences about the "pattern with a number of Lee Morgan dates" perfectly reasonable. Weird -- because while I'm used to Blue Note of the 1979 era (when "Sonic Boom" was first issued) screwing up liner notes (they jumbled up the ones I wrote for Morgan's "Consequence" back then and have now reprinted them that way), why would they introduce an error into notes that made sense the first time around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 looks like someone has been typing off these liners and skipped a line finishing off the first half of "...recorded on April, 14..." with the second half of "recorded on April 28". These two phrases are just above eachother in the original lay-out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Kart Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Good detective work, Couw. That must have been what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 Just noticed I never posted my comments on this. - It's a nice album, especially in the CD version with all the bonus material, but when I bought the LP back when it was finally issued, I felt somewhat disappointed. Instead of a usual Lee Morgan album with a hard bop Fathead I would have expected something more "fatheaded" ..... but when I consider how the latter played on his more straightahead dates, it's no surprise. I still think Fathead's Atlantic debut LP is excellent, and maybe his best and most characteristic. I would have liked an album like this with Lee on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted December 17, 2005 Report Share Posted December 17, 2005 But. . . it wasn't Fathead's date. .. seems natural to me. Been listening to a lot of Ray Charles lately. . . Fathead and Hank and Marcus et al just playing their asses off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 Fathead's an archetype. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeweil Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 But. . . it wasn't Fathead's date. .. seems natural to me. Yes it is ..... still I think it would have been more interesting and a nice change if Lee had opened up to Fathead's approach a little more instead of just using him as a sideman - e.g. use the flute a little. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gould Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 I have to admit, I never thought of it as a missed opportunity to hear Lee "Fatheaded", I was excitited at the thought of Fathead in a hard bop vein. Definitely gets from me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noj Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Love Fathead. Love Lee Morgan. Love Sonic Boom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kh1958 Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Also love Fathead and Lee with Lonnie Smith on Think. Love Fathead. Love Lee Morgan. Love Sonic Boom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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