[radio announcer] Thelonious, 1963.
Don't Blame Me, the Criss-Cross album.
You're listening to Blue Notes, Blue Nights,
here in New York City.
Going to be a stormy one tonight, folks.
Nor-easter coming in.
They're saying high winds and a heavy snowfall.
So take care of yourselves.
Now, a fresh outtake from a forthcoming blue note album by Lee Morgan.
He's really flying high on this one.
[jazz music playing]
-[man] Is that Helen? -Yeah.
Yeah.
That's Lee.
Boy, they were young then.
I just couldn't believe it.
Didn't know what to think.
Because they were both together.
They were always the people we related to.
Both of them.
[man] The fact that he had totaled the car that night,
came to work,
and still wasn't able to
come through the night, was not able to get through the night alive, you know?
I was never able to go down that street again.
Didn't get back to New York.
I was destroyed, man.
And then, you know, I was curious about what happened to Helen.
And then I heard that the police had arrested her and taken her to jail.
And you know, I never saw her again.
[jazz music playing]
[Larry Thomas] This is where I first met Mrs. Helen Morgan.
At this building.
Wilson High School.
Our classroom was situated on the first floor here,
closest to the door.
Because whenever we had a break, Mrs. Morgan did smoke.
My class was a Western civilization class.
But I don't begin with the Greeks and the Romans.
I began with the ancient African civilizations.
So I wasn't a "traditional teacher."
As a matter of fact, they didn't call me Mr. Thomas.
They called me Larry.
Almost all the students called me Larry.
And they were--most of them were her age maybe,
or they were some of them--
I would say the youngest ones were in their 40s.
Mrs. Morgan struck me as a person
who wasn't that academically sound, but she was streetwise.
Just the aura or vibe about her was streetwise.
So as a way of introducing myself to the class,
I would always hand out this bio of me,
with my picture and everything, stating that, you know,
I was a jazz radio announcer,
a little bit of background information on who I was.
When I gave it to her, she said, "Oh, I love jazz."
So I said, "Really?"
She said, "Oh, yeah, by the way, my husband was a jazz musician."
And her last name was Morgan.
And I said, "Your husband?
What was his name?"
And she said his name was Lee.
So I said, "Lee Morgan, the trumpet player?"
And she said,"Yeah." And she kind of looked at me kind of funny.
Like, you know, "You know the story too," you know.
So I said, "Well, I want to interview you one day."
So she said, "I don't have to think about it."
So eventually in '96, I guess about eight years later,
she decided that-- she called me, and said,
"Larry, you still want the interview?"
And I said, "Yeah, of course."
So I borrowed a tape recorder, just a regular Sony.
And I got two cassettes, I just grabbed two cassettes.
I said, "I got to get this interview."
You know?
And that was in February, 1996.
In March, 1996, she died.
[indistinct tape playing over loud high pitched noise]
[ambient background music playing]
[Helen] The country, I never liked at all.
My mother's biggest aim was
when I was growing up in the country,
and I had to work on the farm,
and I had to do all of this,
that when I got big enough, I was leaving this place.
And I was--
I was young.
And then, see, I had kids early.
And I had my first child at 13.
Then I had another baby right behind that.
About 14, right behind.
So that disillusioned me from whole lot of things.
Because I've never once said I wanted any children.
I never did that.
But I had them.
I didn't raise them.
My grandparents raised my children.
Because I left.
I left.
I came to Wilmington.
And then I got married here.
And I only knew him for a week.
And this was that-- the fast life here.
I was 17, he was 39.
And he got drowned.
So his family lived in New York.
And I left Wilmington, stayed two weeks in New York.
And I never came back.
[jazz music playing, applause]
[announcer] Lee Morgan, ladies and gentlemen.
[audience cheering]
[Wayne] The first time I met Lee Morgan, I was in the army.
And in the army, we talked about anything new.
They were talking about Clifford Brown, the actor.
They were talking about James Dean, the actor.
And they said, "Dizzy Gillespie found a trumpet player,
16 years old.
His name is Lee Morgan from Philadelphia."
That's when I heard his name.
And one weekend, I went to New Jersey, home.
And they said, "Dizzy Gillespie is playing at Sugar Hill, the club.
And Lee Morgan is there in that band."
[jazz music playing]
So I went to the Sugar Hill, and I saw the band.
And Dizzy Gillespie was soloing,
then he would stop.
Then the next thing I saw, this young--
the Lee Morgan stand up, he started playing.
[solo trumpet playing]
It was fun to watch him almost challenge Dizzy in the band, musically.
He was extremely confident.
Almost to the point of being cocky.
And here was this bubbly young artist
who knew he was talented.
No question about it.
He knew that he was talented.
[Wayne] The band, they had the band uniforms.
But Lee Morgan and Dizzy Gillespie
and the drummer, which was Charlie Persip, dressed different.
They were like the stars of the band.
[Charli] I mean, everybody was kind of like in shock.
I mean, here's this kid, man,
that's playing like a seasoned veteran, and with great ideas.
I mean, it was never no doubt in anybody's mind
'cause he was going to be a star.
[Paul] It was common among musicians
to be one of the best dressers.
[Charli] We talked about fashion all the time.
What they called Ivy League, that was like the style then.
And Lee was really into that, and so was I.
[Paul] You know, have the best car, prettiest lady, lots of money,
best shoes.
And all that was important to us.
[Charli] Yeah, I bought this Austin-Healey.
And Lee bought a Triumph.
And I used to tease him about it, I said,
"Man, your car is not as powerful, it's not as fast as my car."
He said, "Oh, man, we have to see about that."
[jazz music playing]
[Albert] And, man, we would run around in this city.
And we would go in Central Park at night.
Because in those days, you could drive around in Central Park at night.
Just get out the way, let me go around this turn
as fast as I can.
Could never turn the car over.
[jazz music playing]
The great big festival with Ahmad Jamal was there.
Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, the Jazz Messengers.
Lee Morgan came running across the racetrack
during an intermission.
And he said to me, you want to play with the Messengers?
Do you want to play with the Messengers?
And I said, "Yeah."
And he said, "Come with me."
And I jumped down on the racetrack with him
and went to the dressing room where Art Blakey was.
And Art said to me, "Do you want to play in my band?"
He had that voice.
[imitating] "You want to play in my band, with the Messengers?"
I said, "Yeah."
[jazz music playing]
[announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, we are now beginning the third set
with the terrific Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers
from the jazz corner of the world.
Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on the tenor saxophone,
Bobby Timmons on the piano, Jymie Merritt on the bass.
Soul brothers on this scene now.
Really do a cool one for you.
[jazz music playing]
[Wayne] I was always known as a lone wolf.
But with Lee, Lee was the friend.
And he and I would like to have a debate
about different things, politics.
He wanted to know everything.
I went to Europe for the first time with them.
And sometimes when we were playing,
and Lee would be playing a solo,
and Art would be yelling to Lee, "Talk to the people, talk to the people.
Tell them your story, tell them your story."
He knew how to tell a story musically, you know?
[jazz music playing]
[LOUD HIGH PITCHED BACKGROUND NOISE]
[Helen] Well, I lived for most of my part now, 53rd Street.
Not far from Birdland between 8th and 9th.
Ride around, they all ride around in the circle there.
I could always fit in because I was a talker.
And I got a job.
And then I begin to meet other people.
I started going uptown to clubs.
That's when you would really hear music, the jam sessions, you know?
And I would be invited to the after-hour joints.
Helen was a hero in my neighborhood
because she came up from the south.
And she was a woman that had to struggle
because she didn't want to work for anyone.
So she wanted to be her own person.
When she walked down the block in the neighborhood,
the men and the women paid attention.
Especially the men, because she wore provocative clothes.
She wore are a lot of those A-line type dresses and suits.
Everything fitted her because she was built very nice.
And on Friday, she would change her outfits
and come downstairs when all the guys got off from work.
And they'd be shooting crap, you know.
And she'd go across the street, and she would shoot with them.
She didn't talk a lot about her background or home or anything like that.
She only sort of fit into conversations
when she felt it was necessary to correct something.
That something was said that was not correct,
that she felt uncomfortable with.
That's the only time she would really say anything.
[Helen] I will not sit here
and tell you that I was so nice, because I was not.
A woman that would cut you.
I was sharp.
Yeah.
I had to be.
Had to be.
I was sharp.
And I looked out for me.
[jazz music playing]
[man] That's him.
Oh, he could be a showman.
He had his little style, you know. Be stylin'.
He had a nice laugh too.
[Lee] I'm not gonna stand too close when we play the ensemble.
I might, you know, take my solo.
Yeah, well, I'll step back.
I can't be very loud.
[indistinct chatter]
[jazz music playing]
Every time we went to record, Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff,
the owners of Blue Note, would bring boxes and boxes
of food and everything.
It was like a party.
And there was always a record
that came out of those six, seven-hour recording sessions.
With that group, we had a lot to do with developing
what was called the "Blue Note sound."
[Jymie] Here was these two guys
who seemed to be as involved as the players themselves, you know.
The guys used to call them "the animal brothers." [laughs]
You know, the lion and the wolf.
And I'll never forget Frank Wolff,
the whole time, he would be taking pictures.
He took some remarkable pictures.
[jazz music playing]
[Wayne] He wrote music that came from his youth.
In Search for the New Land,
he was actually digging back into his roots in history.
And what could be achieved with freedom.
I wish the world was like this.
I wish--when we did record,
there was always the thought that this is going to be forever.
What we choose is going to be forever.
[Helen] My apartment was that open house.
Was always beans cooking, always cooked, from to dinner.
You eat, "go by Helen's house."
My house at 53rd Street was the place.
[Al] The first time I met my mother, I was 21.
I went to her house, to her apartment.
And strange enough, when I knocked on the door,
she said "Come in."
And the door was open, not locked, and I went in.
And there was three women at the table.
And I immediately recognized Helen,
first time ever seeing her, because...
I guess you could say the family resemblance to her.
And we greeted each other.
And here she is, 35 or something like that.
And, wow, you know.
"That means that you was 13 when I was born."
It didn't take long for me to latch on to her,
because she was quite interesting.
She worked at an answering service.
And they was pulling and pushing cords in order to make connections.
It was a means of making it in New York.
And being a woman, being a black woman,
there wasn't a whole lot of jobs for you.
[Ron] Everyone knew Helen because she could cook.
And I used to go by
and a lot of the musicians would be there.
She would always say, "Listen, if you're ever in my neighborhood, stop by.
I like to cook."
And they would say, "Okay, I'm in her neighborhood.
Let's see what she cooked today."
Helen would say, "Are you hungry?"
And you said, "Nah, just, you know, maybe a little snack or something."
She say, "I'm gonna fix you somethin'."
She'd be out in the kitchen, doing a roast pork or a turkey.
And you're like, "Whoa, this is going to be great!"
And when she put the food on the table,
she might have a pie or a cake or something.
This is within an hour or two.
Two this woman was fantastic when it came to the kitchen.
[jazz music playing]
She always had some good music playin', I remember that.
Always good jazz music playing.
I remember once, a party.
I mean, it was a small place,
but people from all walks of life.
Most of her friends was gay or lesbian or--
"People are people," she'd say.
[Ron] I remember this.
Helen was washing up some dishes from a great meal
that we all had had.
And I had my camera with me.
And I said, "Can I take your picture?"
She said, "No, I don't like pictures."
She wouldn't let people take pictures of her.
But I wanted to get a picture of her.
So I said something slick.
I don't remember exactly what I said to her.
But when I said it, she turned around.
And when she turned around, I said "Pop!"
And I caught it.
As advertised, we're going to be introducing, in just a moment,
one of the top jazz groups in the world,
on the Blue Note label.
These fellows have been playing together since 1955.
And now, as I say, one of the top jazz groups in the whole world--
they play all around the world too.
Here we go.
[applause]
[jazz music playing]
[Larry Ridley] Oh, he's buggin' here.
Stickin' his tongue out.
"Yes!" [laughs]
Oh, yeah, he's really muggin' there with the young lady.
Oh, yeah, they doin' their little Philly two-step.
That's what it was all about, stayin' neat, get a haircut,
show up on the scene.
That was the whole thing.
We want to impress a young lady, you know.
Come in like, "What it is?"
I think of the good times that we had back then.
You know, there was a lot of good times.
[jazz music playing]
[Wayne] In between, we have a break, we play and we have a break,
and I'd go right to the bar and get a cognac, a double cognac,
sometimes a triple.
And then we would eat.
We all had a plan.
We eat so we could stay sober enough.
You know, but I was--
I thought I was out of the Army, I'm still 26 years old, 27.
And alcohol, you sweat it out.
And you're never going to be staggering or swaying on the bandstand.
You don't stagger.
It's not cool to stagger.
You're supposed to be strong.
I would drink and have like a thin veil around me,
that's my space.
My little dream space and everything.
And we would play.
[jazz music playing]
I'm looking at the back of his head.
There's a bandage.
It's almost like in my face, "What's gonna happen to him?"
It's like, "What you doin', man?
Lee, hey, Lee, what you doin'?"
[jazz music playing]
I was with him in Chicago.
I was with Donnie Washington
and he was with Art Blakey.
And that's when I first realized
that he had succumbed to the drug culture.
And it was most unfortunate
because he was such a rare talent.
And I was very disappointed,
but then I'd ask him if there's anything I could do to help him.
And there was nothing I could do at that time.
And so next thing I know, I had been talked about firing him.
And so next time I know, he and Bobby Timmons were both--
had left the group.
[Wayne] There was some concern...
what was coming next in his life
that we had no control over.
"Lee, why don't you do this, Lee, why don't you do--" you know.
We knew that, you know.
Because when he left, we wasn't going to see him.
You know, like...
I mean, we couldn't go home with him.
Not all musicians were experimenting with drugs and everything.
I never did.
We played at Birdland one time. It's a Monday night,
and Lee came with no shoes.
Because he had on some bedroom slippers.
And he was trying to make us all be okay with it, you know.
Like he was like, you know,"What's wrong with you guys, man?
Oh, yeah. I got my slippers on."
But he had sold his shoes to get some drugs.
Heroin, if you know about it,
it leaves you really sick and in a lot of pain if you don't have it.
And he said he'd rather do that than play the trumpet at the time.
Because he could play the trumpet well, no problem.
It's the drugs that he couldn't control.
[Lena] I asked him about-- once he was lying down,
I saw that he had the burn on the side of his head.
I asked him about that. He told me readily about that.
He'd gotten high
and kind of OD'ed and fell,
and his head hit the radiator.
And he was out, and smelled burning flesh.
And the radiator had burned a big hole.
And then if you notice, in his pictures after 1965,
he combed his hair forward.
And it was only when his head was in a certain position,
the hair would fall away and you could see
the scar, the burn on his head.
[jazz music playing]
Lee's sound was in my head since I was like maybe 18.
I just really loved his playing.
When I came to New York, it was a different time.
And I didn't see Lee Morgan.
He wasn't around.
Until one day, oddly enough,
I was on the subway,
and we had come to maybe 125th street.
And the subway stopped
and I happened to look out the window.
And I saw this guy.
He had on a long overcoat because it was the winter time
and he had his head wrapped in like... it was like a scarf or something.
And just as the train was moving out of the station,
I saw his face.
It was Lee Morgan.
But he looked like a homeless person.
It was a very, very sad time.
You know, nobody would hire him.
He really went down as far as you can go.
And then somehow, he met Helen.
[high pitched noise]
[Larry Thomas] Well, I noticed you call him Morgan.
[Helen] Yeah.
[Larry Thomas] Why do you call him Morgan?
-[Helen] It's his last name. -[Larry Thomas] Uh-huh.
[Helen] And I called him Morgan.
Morgan was one of the people that came to my house.
And for some kind of reason, I don't know,
just sittin' there, like, my heart went out to him.
I saw this little boy, you know.
I remember it was cold.
And he had on his jacket.
I said, "You ain't got no coat?"
And I said, "What are you doing out in that jacket?"
And I said "Child, this is zero degrees out there."
I said, "Well, child, you need your coat."
I said, "Where is your coat?"
He said, "I pawned it."
I said, "Well, c'mon, I'm gonna go get you a coat.
Because it's too cold."
And he just hung on to me.
He had had his teeth knocked out.
And he had the brace on, that saved the teeth,
and that had been years, and he hadn't even gotten the brace off.
But I said, "You know, are you not playin' or nothing?"
I said, "You need to start back to work."
Because see, they couldn't depend on him.
They said, "Lee Morgan is gonna play at so and so place.
He might not be there."
He said, "I know."
I said,"Well, you can't do that.
[Bennie] I thought Helen was super.
She was like his confidante.
She was his friend, his lover.
She was older.
And she definitely
was unafraid
to be with a person who was unstable.
I don't know much about her background,
but whatever it was, it gave her a strength.
She had a real quiet strength about her.
And he really trusted her.
[Helen] We got an apartment.
We moved from downtown.
Morgan went to the hospital in the Bronx.
That hospital,
they were giving him methadone,
a place you had to go in there and stay in there.
He turned himself in. He went in.
[Al] Grand Concourse.
About two blocks from Yankee Stadium and the Bronx.
Uh, but it was...
I mean, it was quite a move up, so to speak,
from what it was.
[Helen] And when he came out, that's when I was working,
you know, talking to people.
Mm-hmm.
And when he came out, they started rehearsing.
Because the people-- everybody wanted to-- would play with him now.
[jazz music playing]
Wasn't no thing about getting you to work.
[Jymie] I was coming from rehearsal with Joe Henderson
at Chick Corea's house.
I remember that because of that bakery of his.
His family had a bakery up there.
And as I came out of the bakery, I was standing on the corner,
I looked down and it was Lee Morgan.
And he was standing.
So we got into conversation.
And I hadn't seen him in quite a while.
And considering what he had gone through,
I was amazed that he was able to hold together at all, you know.
He informed me he was starting a new group.
And would I like to be in it?
Sure, we got together at a place called Slugs'.
[Jerry] He had never come to a job without her.
We did the contract with her, you know?
It was like she was managing him.
I did always work out, you know, "When is he coming in?
Well, he can come in so and so time.
Okay, let's make it this time." This was always with her.
She carried his trumpet case, you know?
She did everything for him.
He played a lot, you know?
[Helen] He started dressing, because he liked to wear his white shirt.
Shirt, tie, leather jacket, shoe shine.
Yeah, he liked to be clean now.
He liked to be clean.
And then when his shirts aren't ironed, he'd want me to iron his shirt.
I'd do all that.
[jazz music playing]
He wrote this tune for me called "Helen's Ritual."
Puttin' lotion and things on.
[laughs] Gettin' ready to go somewhere, took me a half hour.
'Cause I've got to go through that ritual, that lotion.
Every day when we were going out,
wherever we were going, whatever, that lotion...
"Helen's ritual."
[Al] I didn't meet him until after they had a relationship goin' good.
And sure, I said sure.
Me and him about the same age.
And I said "Miss Helen."
And I would say they needed each other
at the time that she met him.
She had someone to take care of,
and he had someone to take care of him.
And it seemed to be a good thing.
[jazz music playing]
[Lee] Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Lee Morgan.
For those of you who might have just come in,
the reason for all these microphones
is that we're recording live for Blue Note Records.
Lee Morgan Quintet live at Hermosa Beach, The Lighthouse.
Now here's "Absolution."
We were enjoying it.
You know, we really enjoyed it
because it gave us a chance, first of all,
to be away for a month from New York.
Because we here by the ocean.
What I remember one thing, Lee practiced every day.
Yeah.
He would make me feel like, "Well, maybe I should practice too."
[laughs]
He was enjoying not wearing any shoes
and walking on the sand in his bare feet, you know. [laughs]
How can you not be relaxed?
This was a great place to relax.
[jazz music playing]
[Lee] Right now, it's just me and my wife, solo.
A lot of times, I would say at least half of the time,
I'd take her with me.
And she serves as wife, cook, secretary...
everything else, you know?
Besides, it's a nice vacation for her as well.
I could understand Helen's position.
I mean, she wanted to be in that world.
And he was the key.
And traveling up and down the West Coast
and rubbing elbows with that crowd.
[Jymie] She always did all the arrangements for the traveling.
And she just, big head come in the door,
and you'd know it was Helen.
[Bennie] That was a good part of his life, I'm sure.
I mean, they really cared about each other.
They loved each other.
I see them sometimes, they were walking, holding hands, you know.
Laughing about something, you know.
Lee was always making her laugh.
And I think that's one thing she liked a lot, you know.
[crickets chirping]
[Helen] I met Miles...
nasty.
Nasty, you know?
I met him.
He said hello, I said hello.
He said, "And who are you supposed to be?"
I said, "I am not 'supposed to be.'"
I am Helen Morgan.
He said, "Oh, you mean Morgan's woman?"
I said yes.
He said, "Well, I guess you know who I am." [laughs]
And I said, "I don't have to know who you are."
And he laughed, you know.
He said, "I see you got a quick mouth."
And the words he said to me like this,
"I don't mess too much around with bitches with quick mouths."
And I said, "Well, I don't consider myself that."
[Al] She was the entertainment's wife.
You know, it was her thing.
It seemed to be working good, as far as I could see.
More power to her.
[jazz music playing]
[Ron] I saw her one day, and I said, "Are you still with Lee?"
She said, "Of course."
She said, "Yeah, I got him back on his feet, and we're doing this and this."
Then I saw a different Helen.
It wasn't the Helen that I grew up with.
It was a woman who cared, who almost had adopted a child
because Lee and her were quite different in age.
And I was very proud of her.
I was proud of her when I knew her as a young man.
But as a man, I became even more proud of her.
Because she was helping someone get back on their feet who had a lot of talent.
[Paul] His life was restored by Helen.
And it was joy to watch.
He had his own group.
He was playing, was producing.
And he was living.
[Bennie] We would get together sometimes at his apartment--
at their apartment, actually.
Lee would call me.
He'd say, "Why don't you come over and we'll have dinner?
So I said, "Okay."
This apartment they had was beautiful.
It was immaculate.
Helen took care of the house.
You know, she would fix us a nice dinner.
We would sit down and have dinner.
And then after dinner, Lee would, you know,
want to go out.
Because he liked to go out and hear other musicians.
So we would leave.
Helen would say,"No, I'm not going with you guys,
because you're going to be out too late.
I just want to stay here.
It would be good to get him out of here
so I could be here by myself."
She was like, "Take him away." [laughs]
That kind of thing.
So he said, "I'll be back."
But it was always fun.
[Paul] And so during that time, I said "What Lee needs now
is not only the support that he gets from his home, from Helen,
but he needs to be put in with a group of young people
who are aspiring to be like him, artistically.
So I brought him in to Jazzmobile Workshop.
[vocalizing]
[Lee] I would teach anybody who wants it.
It's mostly designed for youngsters,
but anybody who wants to come.
It's not really teaching.
We've had, like, arrangements for big bands, small bands, whatnot.
And these are donated by, say, by Thad or Benny Golson,
or Oliver Nelson, Wayne Shorter.
You know, our top writers.
And they get a chance to play.
Some of the more talented ones are trying to write themselves.
And we kind of evaluate their things, you know.
I notice a lot of times I'm talking to them,
and I'll say something or mention something
that might have happened in the 50s or something,
talking about Clifford Brown...
And he'll be looking at me with a puzzled look.
And I realize that here, I'm talking to a kid that's only 15 years old.
To him, I'm ancient.
You see what I'm trying to say?
[Paul] These young kids, they loved him.
And they were soaking up all that he had to offer.
And he wanted to give and give and give and give.
[jazz music playing]
[Lee] I find that
the essence of creativity is the newness of things.
And the only way to keep things new
is to have constant changes in environment
and surroundings and people.
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 are expected.
Again, high winds, lows around 32
and a high temperature of 37.
Authorities advice you to stay off the road and stay indoors...
[Billy] So that night, we had the gig at Slugs'.
Well in the first place, Slugs', this was a real raw saloon basically, you know.
I mean, when you go in there, sawdust on the floor.
And then the stage in the back.
That was one of the places where all the musicians were playing at the time.
And so it had the reputation of a place where you can really hear the real cats.
I remember it was a most difficult night.
It was a night that started out, and then it became something else.
It was a snow--
When we got there, the snow was two feet high.
I remember because I had to get out of there with my instrument.
Then I went back to Philadelphia the next day.
That was... that was it.
[Lena] It was February 18th.
I met Lee for dinner.
And he liked the dress that I had on.
I remember him talking about my dress. "I like your dress."
And we ate.
And then I said, "Well, it's going to be a blizzard,
so I got to go back to Jersey.
Because I ain't drivin' in the snow."
He said, "Just take me up to the Bronx, I'll get my horn,
and drop me off at Slugs'."
And that was the plan.
[Helen] And that Saturday, I don't know what possessed me.
I said, "I'm going to Slugs'."
He was working down there that whole week.
I hadn’t been down there that whole week.
And a fella was stayin' with me named Ed.
So Ed was gay.
And Ed knew all the musicians and everything, you know.
And I said, "Ed, come on."
He said, "Don't go."
I said,"No, I'm goin'."
He said "I just don't want you to go."
[Lena] As you may know, up in the Bronx, a lot of streets are cobblestone.
And we slid on the cobblestone and totaled my car.
So we got the-- we didn't get hurt, though.
We had our fur coats and we were all bundled up.
It was near the Grand Concourse.
He went upstairs and got his horn.
I said, "Well, I got to get back to Jersey."
My car was totaled.
It was maybe four or five inches of snow by then.
Going down in the cab, going down from Grand Concourse stand to Slugs'.
Now we're talking about seven, eight inches of snow.
He said,"I can't not go on the stand because I'm the leader, it's my group."
And he was flashing back to when he was strung out,
and lots of times he didn't show up.
He said,"I can't let them down."
So I went in.
I sat by the door, because if I could get a cab,
I was going to get out of there.
[Jymie] That night was pay night.
And Lee was late getting there.
And when he came in, he rushed right to the bathroom.
He had to throw up.
He had just--his car had just totaled.
He had totaled his car on the way to work.
[Helen] I said, "I'm just going to stop in Slugs'
and say hello."
And then I'd gone over to the band guy named Freddy.
A guy Cam I met down there.
And I went in Slugs', went in.
[jazz music playing]
[Billy] You know, while we were playing, he said,"Don't look now
but Helen just came in."
I didn't know there was a big problem with them at the time.
But when I look back, you know, it was like a movie.
The doors flung open and there was Helen.
[Lena] It was crowded for it to be a blizzard.
Um, Helen came to the door.
He was not sitting with me, I was sitting by the door
so I could see out the window, waiting for a cab.
"I'm here for the draw."
That's what Helen said, "I'm here for the draw."
She said it real loud.
He said, "You want a draw?"
Which would be, musicians get a draw.
They can draw money out of their pay.
And whatever, I didn't even hear the argument.
I knew something was going on.
[Paul] It was snowing outside.
And I and my lady decided
we're going to run down to Slugs' and catch Lee.
As I walked in, Helen approached me.
And she says, "Paul, could you go and talk to your friend, Lee?
And, because he's got his little girlfriend here.
And I feel very uncomfortable with her being here,
and she shouldn't be here."
I said okay.
So I walked over to him.
He was at the bar and talking to this little lady.
"Lee," I said,"look. Your wife is here.
And I don't know who this young lady is.
But I think you ought to take her outside, put her in a cab,
and send her home."
"All right, okay, all right, we'll do it."
You know, that was his attitude at the time.
And so his wife then came and sat with us.
[Helen] Morgan came where I was.
We was talking.
The girl walked up.
And she said,
"I thought you wasn't supposed to be with her anymore," or something.
"I'm not--
I'm not with this bitch,
I'm just telling her to leave me alone."
And about that time, I hit him.
And when I hit him,
I didn't have on my coat or nothing but I had my bag.
He threw me out the club.
Winter time.
The gun fell out the bag.
He's the one who bought me the gun. I couldn't get it myself.
And I got up.
So my lady said to me, "Paul, Helen is outside in the snow.
Her coat is here.
Why don't you take her coat to her?"
And she comes in.
[Lena] Lee was getting ready to go back up there,
play "Angela" for Angela Davis.
And he was getting ready to go back up and Helen came in.
Helen is walking and I'm walking,
we're both walking toward each other,
and Lee is in the middle.
And she once again taps Lee on his shoulder,
but she has her hand in her pocketbook.
And taps him, and Lee turns around.
And bam!
And I said, "What is that?" You know, we're looking up.
Lee's still standing up, and I thought maybe--
I don't know what happened. Maybe somebody shot something in the air or something.
It was just pop-pop.
Pop--one pop, I don't know.
And, um, and he fell.
[Helen] Yeah, I lost it, I lost it.
I said, "I couldn't have did this.
I couldn't have did this.
This must be a dream.
And I'mma wake up."
[sirens wailing]
[Paul] The police came right away.
But in--I don't know whether it was because of the bad weather,
the ambulance took almost an hour to get to the club.
I think he could have been saved.
It took such a long time for the ambulance to come.
[Jymie] E verybody walked away--
I don't know, I never walked back.
I never--I don't know...
I was never able to go down that street again.
Didn't get back to New York.
[jazz music playing]
[Lena] I went with him to the hospital,
sitting in this big empty Bellevue,
and ran to see by myself.
After a while, I saw them come out of the ER with a big bag,
they were dragging it on the floor.
And there was blood--
there was nobody there but Lee.
And I just walked over, over to it.
I knew he was gone.
[newsreader] Well-known trumpet player, Lee Morgan was fatally shot
during a Saturday morning in an East Village jazz club.
Police said the 33-year-old Morgan had quarreled earlier
with his wife, Helen Morgan, who shot the musician
once in the chest after he completed the late night set
at Slugs' Jazz Club.
Police have arrested Mrs. Morgan,
who is due to be arraigned in Manhattan criminal court.
No further statements have been issued.
We had a memorial service over in Philadelphia.
And, uh...
And they buried him in Philadelphia.
And that was a very sad time.
That was--that was... the end of a beginning.
[Bennie] I cried most of the day that day.
And I hadn't cried, you know, in ages.
I don't remember crying like that.
And then I was curious about what happened to Helen.
And then I heard that, of course,
the police had arrested her, taken her to jail.
And I never saw her again.
[Helen] And it came down, you know.
My kids is upset.
They don't know what to think.
They don't know what to think, you know?
I had to go to court.
And then when we went to jail, I sat there.
And I was just sitting there.
She was, for a while there, I mean, she just--
it was almost like
she wished she had shot herself instead of him.
And then trying to get her out, trying to get a lawyer,
all those kind of things--
it was pretty hectic.
The lawyer made arrangements for her
to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter.
And I think within two or five years' probation.
That's what she pleaded guilty to.
[serene music playing]
She had to get permission to leave the state of New York.
We drove down, probably it was in 1974 or '75,
somewhere along then.
We took her down.
So she wanted to go visit.
And that was the first time that she had been back down there.
And she took me to the house, the country,
I think where I was born.
She really seemed to be visiting her childhood when we was there.
Because she was-- you know,
you're able to walk without shoes on when you're in the country, you know.
And walking, and--
And she is talking about all of the things that she remembered.
Because all she could visit in that place was her childhood,
because she had no other connections to it.
And then she wound up moving back there.
She moved down to Wilmington.
She became active in the church.
I don't want to use the word "religious"
because that wasn't her.
But she still had this thing in her
about the taking of a life.
It's like she had to help folks from that point on.
She had to help folks.
And she did a lot of cooking in a home for people, you know,
for the church and whatever
because they loved her cooking,
and she was traveling with the bishop.
She moved right into the church, and became a celebrity in the church.
And how could I say-- she found her salvation.
[Helen] I was over there in Rikers.
And I said, "Well, Helen, you got to get yourself together.
It's done.
You done put yourself in it now.
You got to get your mind--
you got to get yourself together mentally
to accept what you've done."
And the lawyer came over and talked to me.
He came to see me.
[child] Sweet grains.
[Helen] Oh, okay.
And he said that what was going on,
he was waiting for the right lawyer.
And--
[man] Hey, little guy.
How you doin'?
[high-pitched noise]
[Larry Thomas] And then her grandson walked in.
So we had to stop the conversation at that point.
We had to stop the conversation.
So at that point, I said, "Can I come back and finish?"
You know, because we really weren't finished.
And she said, "Sure."
And that was in February, 1996.
And March, 1996, she died.
[Billy] I just couldn't believe it.
All the musicians were, of course,
just befuddled.
Didn't know what to think.
Because they were both together.
They were always the people who we related to, both of them.
[Larry Ridley] I was mad for a long time.
You know, "How can she do that to my brother, Lee Morgan," you know.
"If I ever see her, I don't know,
I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind."
You know, I was really angry.
I went through that for a while.
And I was always wondering,
"What am I going to do
when I finally come in contact with her?"
And it was interesting because I was playing at a club called the Needle's Eye.
And this is after she finally got out of jail and she was released.
And she was in the club.
And I was playing there.
And she came there specifically to see me because she--
you know, we were all very close, you know.
And I had all this anger that had been built up.
And when I saw her, and the expression on her face ,
and the vibe I got from her,
I couldn't do anything but open my arms open.
And she came and just started hugging me and she was crying.
And she said, "Larry, I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry.
I didn't mean to do it."
That's what she said to me.
And you know, like, all of that anger
and everything just went away.
[jazz music playing]
[Paul] I was-- I was very angry.
That was my first response, anger.
I was angry at her for having committed this act
on somebody I consider a friend,
and someone who contributed so much
in his short life, to our music.
That was my initial feeling, one of anger.
And yet...
I had a feeling of compassion.
Because I realized that this was the woman
who literally picked this man up out of the gutter.
I mean literally, the gutter.
And made it possible for him to function again as an artist,
as a human being.
[Wayne] Sometimes I am talking to people now,
and I would say to them,
"You should have known Lee Morgan," you know.
They'll see a picture of him and say, "Who's this?"
I'll say,"His name is Lee Morgan."
[jazz music playing]