Lee Morgan Film

[JSngry]

To be honest, I didn't find it depressing...it was just, uh, "human". It was also, if not exactly "uplifting"...it was resolutional in that Helen accepted the weight of what she did, and seems to have spent the rest of her life trying to atone for it. Seems like she was all about keeping it real all through her life, before and after those few seconds in Slug's.

Seems like one of those "bound to happen" tragedies. like, a "classical" tragedy of life, a kid loses balance, gets picked up and put back on track by a strong woman, a combination wife and mother (and I still don't know about was Lee's childhood, what kind of a mother did he have or not have that he ended up falling in love with an older woman and then letting her handle all his business and things) then the kid grows up and eventually starts feeling frisky, looks at women his own age and gets pretty disrespectful about his existing relationship to his older partner, and she, having always been on the salty side, has a moment where everything combines in that certain way at that certain moment where everything snaps (and I believe we all have the potential of that moment inside us), just for THAT long, not more than a second or two, but that's all it takes, right?

Larry Ridley's recounting of re-meeting Helen Morgan years later almost brought tears to my eyes, because make no mistake, murdering anybody is a profoundly weighty act every way imaginable, but when the two principles are people you've known closely over a lifetime...the higher possibilities of humanity, things like forgiveness of others, repenting and atoning of one's worse misdeeds (as we say today, "owning it") and then just moving on/up, never denying the past but always looking toward tomorrow resolved to be better than that, those are things that might be missing to a less that healthy extent today. In that sense, "I Called Him Morgan" is a "jazz movie" in the sense that "8 Men Out" is a "baseball movie".

Interestingly enough, in the closing "Thanks To" credits, a pretty long list of names included both David Weiss and Jonas Kullhammar!

And finally, I would loved to have eaten Helen Morgan's cooking, I can tell that.

[sidewinder]

I'm bursting a blood vessel to see this one - doesn't look as if Amazon UK or Netflix UK are yet offering it. 

[Soulstation1]

i thought they were never married??

 

[JSngry]

Common-law married.

[bertrand]

But the copyright holder is the only official wife, Kiko.

Bertrand.

 

[Soulstation1]

I cant figure out a certain song's title 

I'll rewatch and post the time on the movie 

I think it's a Jazz Messenger Song 

[Soulstation1]

1:02:30 mark on the Netflix time bar 

during the time Shorter talks about getting a drink or a triple....

Ends when Shorter looks at the picture of Lee with his head bandaged up 

Edited August 1, 2017 by Soulstation1

[AllenLowe]

I  watched it last night and i was a bit disappointed; a lot of period flavor, loved seeing the pictures of Slugs (I went there 3 or 4 times when I was barely 15 or 16), but ultimately I found it meandering. It seemed like they had about 45 minutes of materials stretched over twice that length; a lot of repetition, commentary that said the same thing more than once. It was well made, and I liked the 'look' of it, but my mind wandered. And while I loved the musicians, I was never a big fan of that era of Bluenote; same basic melodies and phrases (kinda blues/hard bop) over and over, and I always found a lot of it to be compositionally dull. The film had so much of that that it dragged for me.

Edited August 1, 2017 by AllenLowe

[CJ Shearn]

I watched it, and like Jim and Kevin found it very sad.  Though it was unbelievable how Helen singlehandedly saved Lee, but unfortunately killed him. I found the episodes detailed of him playing a gig in slippers because he pawned off his shoes and the burning a hole in his head after getting high, chilling.  Helen Morgan was a very tragic figure indeed, of course I believe even those who have committed murder  can be given a second chance (obviously not all are capable of this fact) the story Ridley told of meeting her years later and forgiving was really bittersweet.  Humanity can be indeed tragic and beautiful at the same time.

[David Ayers]

On 30/07/2017 at 10:55 AM, sidewinder said:

I'm bursting a blood vessel to see this one - doesn't look as if Amazon UK or Netflix UK are yet offering it. 

Seem to remember you didn't want to pay the £16 to get in...

[RogerF]

On ‎30‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 10:55 AM, sidewinder said:

I'm bursting a blood vessel to see this one - doesn't look as if Amazon UK or Netflix UK are yet offering it. 

It's showing this week at the Curzon Bloomsbury BerthaDoc screen

[sidewinder]

11 hours ago, David Ayers said:

Seem to remember you didn't want to pay the £16 to get in...

Not so much that as having to do the expedition to get in to London to see it.

[David Ayers]

3 hours ago, sidewinder said:

Not so much that as having to do the expedition to get in to London to see it.

You'd better hope it comes to netflix!

[JSngry]

Does UK not get the same Netflix as we do here?

[clifford_thornton]

14 hours ago, CJ Shearn said:

I watched it, and like Jim and Kevin found it very sad.  Though it was unbelievable how Helen singlehandedly saved Lee, but unfortunately killed him. I found the episodes detailed of him playing a gig in slippers because he pawned off his shoes and the burning a hole in his head after getting high, chilling.  Helen Morgan was a very tragic figure indeed, of course I believe even those who have committed murder  can be given a second chance (obviously not all are capable of this fact) the story Ridley told of meeting her years later and forgiving was really bittersweet.  Humanity can be indeed tragic and beautiful at the same time.

same. I had no idea how strung out and near-death Lee Morgan was before he met Helen.

[sidewinder]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Does UK not get the same Netflix as we do here?

No.

2 hours ago, David Ayers said:

You'd better hope it comes to netflix!

No doubt UK/European Amazon streaming and Netflix will get it eventually. I'll wait.

[JSngry]

4 hours ago, clifford_thornton said:

same. I had no idea how strung out and near-death Lee Morgan was before he met Helen.

fwiw, I've heard "reliable sources" relate stories about how Lee & Bobby Timmons used to do entry-level breakings and enterings to jack whatever was laying around and easily boosted, I mean common shit. Like, he was lucky he didn't get busted on that, never mind the drugs.

Let's also recall the anecdote about how Lee got motivated to clean up after hearing one od his records played on the radio as being by "the late Leee Morgan".

What does UK Netflix get anyway? A lot of the stuff that we (I mean the Sangrey family) get through Amazon via Acorn?

[clifford_thornton]

the head injury aspect I did not know before. Jeez. "the late Lee Morgan" story sounds familiar.

[sidewinder]

That 'Late Lee Morgan' record heard on the radio was 'Take Twelve' on Jazzland I think.

[BillF]

This book by board member umum_cypher is very informative:

[sidewinder]

2 hours ago, BillF said:

This book by board member umum_cypher is very informative:

Yes, time for another read through Tom's book. The story about 'Take Twelve' is in there I think.

[clifford_thornton]

ah, gotta check out that book!

[sidewinder]

Just been listening to an interesting BBC archive interview with Eddie Henderson. Eddie mentioned practicing duets with Morgan - not only did Morgan sit extremely close, touching distance but also subtly adjusted his playing on the fly to the notes and tones of Eddie's playing. As mentioned, not something that would ever be taught at any school and an insight into Morgan's artistry.

[sidewinder]

Now on Netflix UK. Time for me to sign up (temporarily).

[AllenLowe]

I do wanna read that book; though the documentary, as I mentioned, was a big disappointment to me. Same things, over and over.