I Called Him Morgan Page #5

And that's the thing

that is so exciting about

being a jazz musician.

[jazz music playing]

[Lena] Wow.

[chuckles]

Man, Lee.

That's the fun.

That's what I saw a lot of.

That's the fun stuff.

Fooling around.

Yeah, I like that one.

I met Lee Morgan

in the late 1950s

in Atlantic City, New Jersey

when my family

was working down there

in the different clubs,

in the cabaret clubs,

preceding the casinos.

And Lee Morgan

was at the Cotton Club

with the Cookers,

his own group.

When we hung out,

we'd go to the movies,

we'd get popcorn,

we'd spill it.

He'd laugh just like a kid.

And I liked him because

he was so down-to-earth.

He called himself Howdy Doody.

That was a private joke

we had between us

because he had big ears

like Howdy Doody,

which was a doll clown

years ago.

And so he says,

"I'm Howdy Doody."

And he'd called me

Baby Huey because

I had kind of big butt.

He says,"Let's go up to

the Blue Note and let's

pick out some albums,

and we'd just listen to them."

And at that time in my car,

I had an 8-track in my car.

That's as big as

a VHS now, you know,

this big thing and

you put it in your car.

And we would ride around

listening to music.

Go down by

the West Side Highway,

end up at

the George Washington Bridge,

and listen to music.

Nothing fancy, just hang out.

That's just what we did.

[jazz music playing]

[Helen] He ventured out often,

either at the train

at the Grand Concourse,

and I ain't going back

to New Jersey.

[jazz music playing]

Lee's kind of

seeing this girl.

You know what I mean?

Once he was got himself

straight, I warned him.

And then they were hangin' out.

She was--you know.

He had somebody to--

I started hangin' around.

And I'd go in the bathroom,

and they would be in there,

you know.

[Bennie] I got

a call from Helen.

And Helen was looking for Lee.

And Lee never

stayed out all night.

Never.

Generally, when he was out,

he was out with Helen.

Or he was out with me.

It would be like that.

And so she says, "I'm really

concerned about him

because he didn't

come home last night.

And he didn't call me.

So I don't know what

to think, if he's hurt

or, you know,

what's happening.

Have you seen him?"

And I told her,"No,

I haven't seen him."

So later in the day,

Lee called me.

And I told him that

Helen had called me.

He says, "Yeah, I know.

She was calling everybody."

And he said,

"I met this woman,

and there's a vibe

between this woman and I,

and I went to her house,

and I did not go home."

So I was like, "Wow."

[interviewer]

How old are you now?

[Lee] Thirty three.

[interviewer] Well,

you're still very young, man.

You've been around for years.

[Lee] Right.

Right, I started

with Dizzy at 18.

So that means last 15 years.

[interviewer] Mm-hmm.

That's like a lot to have

learned something from.

[Lee] Mm-hmm.

[Lena] Between Christmas

and New Years, when

the year 1972 came in,

we were hanging out in Jersey,

going to the local bar.

He was shooting pool

with my friends.

He just wanted to

be in New Jersey,

go to the diner that

stayed open all day,

East Orange Diner from

East Orange, New Jersey.

Go to the diner, you know.

And on New Year's Eve,

we were at my house.

No hanging out, no giggin',

no partyin', no nothing.

And we just crashed

watching the fish tank.

I had a 100-gallon-long

fish tank from my children.

Fish tank was like the center

of attraction in my house.

Because the fish

were really cool.

And he would sit there

mesmerized watching the fish.

He said, "I'm not

composing anymore."

I never bothered him.

I just wanted him to

search his own soul

and feel good about it.

Because of the addiction

and whatnot,

his sexuality was very, very,

very, very, very, very limited.

Almost non-existent

because of what

he had been through.

It didn't faze me because

we were good friends.

And that New Year's Eve,

he woke me up like 3

or 4 o'clock in the morning,

which was then

1972 had come in.

And he said something drastic

is getting ready to happen.

He said "I can feel it."

[jazz music playing]

[Billy] I heard from Lee

that we were supposed

to do a television recording

on this show called Soul.

This show featured jazz acts,

jazz performances.

And the audience was a lot

of young black listeners

who were really into jazz.

So this was a good one.

This was a good show, a good

event to participate in.

Good evening.

I'm your announcer, Jerry B.

And tonight on Soul,

trumpet star Lee Morgan,

Harold Mabern, Jymie Merritt,

Freddy Waits, Billy Harper.

Yeah, it was a nice set.

And it was good to have

the opportunity to, you know,

be on television at that time.

[applause]

Here is brother Lee Morgan

and the Quintet.

Now, we'd like to

do a brand new one.

This was composed by

our bassist Jymie Merritt,

and is dedicated to

sister Angela Davis.

The title, "Angela."

[Jymie] We recorded

a tune called "Angela,"

which was something

that Lee had asked me

to write for, you know,

write something for him.

And that seemed to be

something that needed

to be addressed at that time.

[Lee] You know,

I don't believe in

labels in music, period.

I don't even like

the word "jazz," really.

I think it's a bad word.

It's not a word

that we made up.

It's a word that we

were told what it was.

Just like we were told

that we are negroes,

or you know...

Same kind of thing.

If you ask me what would I

call our music, you know,

the best that I

could come up with

would probably be

"black classical music."

But then that's even

a broad term, you know?

[jazz music playing]

[Helen] He did

a television show,

and naturally, I was there.

But that didn't mean nothing!

Because when we left,

he was going on to her.

And I was going on to...

you know.

[applause]

"What you doin'?"

I said,

"I'm not one of those women

that you can talk to

wile I'm the main woman and you

got somebody outside that."

I said, "I'm not

built that way.

That's not me.

I never--no, no--

I'm no main woman

if you leavin' me here

every night by myself

and you out there

with somebody.

I'm not--

I also get up, told him

I had some friends in Chicago,

and I was going to visit them.

And I told him, I said,

"I'm going to Chicago.

I don't know

when I'll be back."

I said,"Because I

feel like something bad's

gonna happen out of this."

And that Sunday,

he begged me not to go.

He said, "No, no, don't go."

"Don't go to Chicago," he said.

I said, "Well,

you can't live--

I can't live like this.

I said it's not in me.

And I didn't go to Chicago.

And I told him, I said,

"You know, Morgan,

I'm making the biggest

mistake of my life."

[jazz music playing]

[newsreader] This is the news

in detail on the hour.

National Weather Service

warns the Nor'easter

currently hitting the city

could bring the biggest

snowfall of the winter.

Winds up to 40 miles an hour

and continued snow and sleet

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