Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia on July 10, 1938, so he was 19 when this record was begun. He had already been around the best: Robert Levin, in the original notes, has him meeting, and sometimes playing with, Dizzy Gillespie, Clifford Brown and Miles Davis. Here, for a whole record, he is the only horn. Levin sees the risk plainly: one horn has to hold the listener's interest all the way through.
It took two days, both at Rudy Van Gelder's in Hackensack with the same quartet: Sonny Clark on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Art Taylor on drums. On Monday, November 18, 1957, they kept "Since I Fell For You" and "Personality." A Rodgers and Hammerstein tune, "All at Once You Love Her," was set aside, and a try at Irving Berlin's "Who Do You Love, I Hope" was rejected. They came back on Sunday, February 2, 1958, and got the Berlin tune, along with "Candy," "C.T.A." and "All the Way."
The tunes are the point. Levin calls them improbable choices for a jazz date, mostly pop songs, and liked that they gave Morgan fresh material. Side one opens with "Candy," one of the three he thought best showed Morgan's wit. Buddy Johnson's "Since I Fell For You" shows his lyrical side. Then Jimmy Heath's "C.T.A."
is a blowing vehicle on which Lee is particularly vociferous
Robert Levin, original liner notes
Side two starts with "All the Way," the other lyrical one, a Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen song. "Who Do You Love, I Hope" comes from Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, and "Personality," another Van Heusen tune, closes the record. Levin hears Morgan being wittily engaging on both. Of the rhythm section he says only that they give agile support.
The sleeve is a Reid Miles design around a photograph by Emerick Bronson rather than Francis Wolff.
The record came out in late November 1958. One West Coast critic was careful with his praise:
Morgan is not yet a great trumpeter, though perhaps a great one for his age.
C.H. Garrigues, San Francisco Examiner, 1958
The set-aside tune, "All at Once You Love Her," came out later in Japan and is now a bonus track on the CD. A week after the second date Morgan was back at Van Gelder's, sharing the front line with Hank Mobley.
