Track Listing

1. Sidewinder
2. Totem Pole
3. Gary's Notebook
4. Boy
5. Hocus Pocus
6. Totem Pole (2)
7. What A Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4117 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Sidewinder - to hear it is to love it.
No jazz collection should be without this masterpiece of upbeat cool. Not just great horn blowing from Mr. Morgan, but some of the hottest solo pieces from the rest of the guys too -sax, piano and some unbelievable bass. Definitely in the same groove as Dexter Gordon's "Go" and Cannonball Adderley's "Somethin' Else". The only time I ever called a radio station to get the name of a tune. If you don't start tappin' to the title track, then check your pulse 'coz you're probably dead.

Definitive 60's hard bop - Jazz at its best
Lee Morgan was one of Blue Note's defining trumpet players - recording many albums for them as both leader and sideman from 1956 to his untimely death in 1972 - and this is rightly his most famous album. Melodic and meandering, sinuous and groovy this is an album you won't forget in a hurry and which deserves a place in even the most general of Jazz collections. Shot dead at 33, Morgan packed a great deal into his brief career and was among the greatest trumpet players of his age. Sidewinder is an eternal testament to his talent and the eponymous title track has such a natural flow to it, you'll swear you've heard it before, even if you haven't.

Pure "cool"...
"The Sidewinder"... 10 minutes 24 seconds of pure "cool" and a stunningly effective example of how to push jazz into mainstream popular music without compromising on technique or virtuosity. Recorded in 1963 - way before "jazz/funk" was invented - Lee Morgan lays down its perfect template by creating an insidious riff that captures & holds the listener's attention while inviting improvisation from a superbly tight band that includes Joe Henderson on sax and the wonderful Bob Cranshaw on bass. So clever that their breaks become an integral part of the driving back-beat that results in that rarest of things: a jazz track that you can actually dance to. Definitive, timeless and, above all, fun.

And the rest?... high quality early 60's jazz: as good as anything around at the time but overwhelmed by the sheer power of the album's opening track.