Lee Morgan - The Cooker

180-gram gatefold LP

Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tape

Plated and pressed at RTI

"For vinyl fans who don't want to enter the collector's market, this new stereo Tone Poet is the only real choice. Fortunately, it's superb. Like all the records in this series, it was supervised by Tone Poet Joe Harley, remastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes, and pressed to pristine 180-gram vinyl at RTI. In contrast to too many high-end jazz-vinyl reissues, this is a proper 33 1/3 RPM LP, with all the songs on a single disc, just like the original (stereo) issue. The gatefold cover is meticulously crafted. The vinyl is quiet, without meaningful flaws. The stereo images are corporeal, and the soundstage has real depth. To my ear, this sounds slightly better than the 24/192 FLAC file on Qobuz-I don't know how or why-with a slightly wider stage and denser sonic images. The only reason not to buy this record is if you don't have a record player, or if you're broke." — Jim Austin, Stereophile, June 23, 2020. Read the entire review here.

The Blue Note Tone Poet Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was' admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley (from Music Matters), a.k.a. the "Tone Poet," on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

Listening to Lee Morgan blow his molten solo on "A Night In Tunisia," the opening track of The Cooker, it's hard to fathom that he was only 19 years old at the time. Recorded just two weeks after Morgan's dazzling performance on John Coltrane's masterpiece Blue Train in September 1957, The Cooker was in fact Morgan's 5th Blue Note album as a leader. Bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones (both of whom also played on Blue Train) are joined by baritone saxophone master Pepper Adams and the great Bobby Timmons on piano on this superbly swinging session.

Side 1

1. A Night In Tunisia

2. Heavy Dipper

Side 2

1. Just One Of Those Things

2. Lover Man

3. New-Ma

Customer Reviews (5.00 Stars) 2 person(s) rated this product.

Really Sharp posted on 07/05/2021 5 Stars Reviewer: Brian VanPelt This one is sharp and loud, even for a Tone Poet issue. Lee Morgan's horn is really well-defined, and it occupies the left speaker. The drums are sharp as well, and they were in the right. These instruments both sounded like they were in the room with me - which is a slight step up from the typical Tone Poet. As usual, there is no surface noise to speak of, outside of an occasional light click. The sound stage stretched from speaker to speaker, and it had a nice depth. Lee Morgan is a monster on his horn, and you can hear everything he does if you listen. The detail there is spectacular. I love to hear talent laid bare like that. Another thing that I noticed was that the recording was completely clean - no tape distortion of any kind. Overall, a great record.

Perfect posted on 05/03/2020 5 Stars Reviewer: Anthony Excellent! The Tone Poet issues have been consistently good. This one cooks!

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