Attempting to complete a discography for Lee Morgan would be akin to replicating Mount Kilamanjaro with peanut butter. It sounds good – or delicious – but would probably prove too difficult to ever achieve. Over just 33 years on this god forsaken earth, Morgan performed with Gillespie, Coltrane, Blakey and Moncur III, got Wayne Shorter a job and inadvertently launched soul jazz into the charts with a song that he believed was filler. “Sidewinder” isn’t a joke, but when looking into Morgan’s catalog, it’s understandable as to why the trumpeter felt that some of his more challenging material wasn’t given the same deference by the Blue Note folks, who he primarily worked with.

Going back to ’57, when Morgan was just 19, he led a session entitled Candy. And seeing as it was about the tenth disc to feature him as leader from the previous two years, one shouldn’t be too shocked that it was made up of mostly non-abrasive bop that sang choruses and blocked out solos rather turgidly. It wasn’t a failure and Morgan’s talents were amply displayed even amongst whatever whirring noises pervaded the studio to the extent of making it onto the album. These earliest works weren’t auspicious announcements, but nothing that would later embarrass the trumpeter.

Only recording for fifteen years still allowed for Morgan to change and adjust his approach to the horn not only based upon the changing fancies of the genre, but for himself. He wasn’t ever slated to be the air apparent to Miles, but some of the work from his mid ‘60s catalog, while not as adventurous in a genre expanding way, were as thoughtful as that elder performer.

Unknowingly moving ever closer to his demise, a date was set up at during the middle of ‘67 that included Morgan’s buddy Grachan Moncur III, Reggie Workman and the trumpeter’s discovery, a young Bobbi Humphrey on flute. It’s alternately referred to as Lee Morgan or The Last Date, take your pick.

The crew goes in on five extended tracks that would eventually be the final studio recording for Morgan. It’s not all detached from Sidewinder or Search for a New Land, but there’s certainly less of a back beat to it all. The lead off track, the seventeen minute “Capra Black” plays with the tone of the group as it moves back and forth between sections that hint at players’ abilities to freely improvise and then at a moments notice swing like it’s 1956 again.

Oddly enough, none of these compositions were penned by Morgan, instead a variety of sidemen contribute to the tracking here. Most unique, though are the two tracks figured by sax player Harold Mabern. He’s responsible for the title track as well as “Croquet Ballet” which features Humphrey’s recording debut. Both of these selections find appropriate time for Morgan to solo, but the argument could be made that Mabern out shines his boss in these settings - that latter track possessing some of the more interesting interplay between the rhythm section and a melodic player on Lee Morgan.

The album might not be a proper end point for Morgan’s studio discography, but there’s always Live at the Lighthouse to wade through if fans want more from this sometimes unheralded trumpeter.