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.