Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

Lee Morgan Sextet

Lee Morgan

1956 · Blue Note BLP 1541 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Blue Note
Catalogue number	BLP 1541
Year	1956
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Hard Bop
Producer	Alfred Lion
Musicians	Lee Morgan (trumpet), Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Kenny Rodgers (alto sax), Horace Silver (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), Charlie Persip (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  BN-LP-1541 A EAR RVG
Side B:  BN-LP-1541 B EAR RVG

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: VG

Variant chronology

1956 - Deep-groove, 767 Lexington Ave label, W. 63rd St address not yet in use, RVG + Plastylite ear  <- this copy
1959-63 - New York, USA address, W. 63rd St, no deep groove
1963-65 - Blue Note/Liberty (no "New York, USA")
1967-69 - Liberty "A Division of Liberty Records" label
1985 - Blue Note reissue (Manhattan/EMI)
2000s - Classic Records/Music Matters audiophile reissues

This Pressing

1st press (mono, 1956) - Blue Note 767 Lexington Ave deep-groove label; RVG stamp + Plastylite ear in both dead-wax sides.

The Album

Recorded in August 1956 when Lee Morgan was barely eighteen, this session captures the young trumpeter already fluent in the Clifford Brown-influenced hard bop language after his stint with Dizzy Gillespie's big band. Arranger Benny Golson supplied three of the six compositions along with Philadelphia friend Owen Marshall, giving the date a cohesive, big-band-inflected writing sensibility despite the small sextet format. The frontline pairing of Morgan with Hank Mobley and little-known altoist Kenny Rodgers, backed by Horace Silver, Paul Chambers and Charlie Persip, produced a set balancing Golson's melodic, sophisticated charts with blowing room for the young leader. This was Morgan's second Blue Note leader date, arriving as he was quickly establishing himself as one of the label's brightest new voices and would soon join Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. The album stands as an early testament to Morgan's precocious talent and to Golson's emerging skill as a composer-arranger within the hard bop idiom. It was well received in its day, with liner notes from critic Leonard Feather praising Morgan's rapid maturation, and it remains valued by collectors and historians as a formative document in the trumpeter's brief but towering career.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Whisper Not (Benny Golson)
2. Latin Hangover (Golson)
3. His Sister (Owen Marshall)

Side 2

1. Slightly Hep (Benny Golson)
2. Where Am I (Golson)
3. D's Fink (Owen Marshall)

The Label

This copy carries the white top-half/blue bottom-half label with the handwritten "BLUE NOTE RECORDS 767 LEXINGTON AVE NYC" rim text and deep-groove ring visible around the spindle hole, the earliest Blue Note NY label design used from the label's inception through 1957-58 before the shift to the 47 West 63rd St address. That address places this pressing at the front of the BLP 1541 pressing hierarchy, made not long after the August 1956 recording date. The deep groove plus the Lexington Ave rim text are the two decisive dating markers separating this earliest label from the later West 63rd St and "New York, USA" variants that followed.

Fidelity

Cut and pressed under Rudy Van Gelder's direct supervision from the original analog master, with the Plastylite (ear) pressing at the peak of Blue Note's original run, this is regarded by collectors as the definitive-sounding edition of BLP 1541. Steve Hoffman forum consensus favors these mono Lexington Ave/deep-groove originals over the later West 63rd St and Liberty-era pressings, and well over the flatter, more compressed United Artists/Liberty reissues of the mid-60s. Modern audiophile reissues (e.g. Music Matters/Classic Records) offer quieter surfaces and expanded dynamics but most purists still rank a clean RVG/ear original like this one at or near the top of the fidelity hierarchy for sonic authenticity and tonal warmth.

Notes

1956 Blue Note BLP 1541 mono - original first pressing. Deep-groove 767 Lexington Ave NYC label with RVG and Plastylite ear stamps on both sides confirms earliest issue, predating the later West 63rd St address change. Matrix reads BN-LP-1541 A/B EAR RVG, consistent with a true first-pressing stamper set.

Documenting collections

I do this work for other people’s collections too — documenting a collection record by record, researching individual pressings, and preparing collections for sale or for insurance. If you have a collection you would like documented, or a record you want identified properly, get in touch: email

This record’s page: https://vinylcurator.net/albums/lee-morgan-lee-morgan/