Lee Morgan

CD version. Infinity is a quintet session that Lee Morgan recorded for Blue Note on 16 November 1965 and that stayed in the vault until 1981, when it finally appeared in the LT series. It catches the trumpeter in a prolific period, stretching the hard bop language toward longer and more open forms with a band that knew his music well.

The date came about two months after the sextet session for Cornbread, and two players from that record returned: Jackie McLean on alto saxophone and Billy Higgins on drums. The rest of the rhythm section was Larry Willis on piano and Reggie Workman on bass. Alfred Lion produced, and the group was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Four of the five pieces are Morgan originals, and the fifth is McLean's ballad Portrait of Doll. The title track opens the record with a long, probing theme that leaves the soloists plenty of room. Miss Nettie B. settles into a laid-back 6/8 groove, while Growing Pains is built on intricate, interlaced lines for the two horns. The set ends with Zip Code, a fast blues and the most direct thing on the album.

Reviewing it for AllMusic, Scott Yanow heard music tied to the hard bop tradition but challenging and often tricky, and he called the record an underrated one. Its long wait is part of a larger story. After the success of The Sidewinder, Blue Note postponed or shelved several of Morgan's sessions while it looked for another hit. Some of them surfaced only in the vault programme of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

This is the Japanese Ultimate High Quality CD from Universal Music Japan (UCCQ-9658, 2024), remastered by Kevin Gray. It comes in a jewel case with obi, with the original sleeve notes by Roy Chernus reproduced on the back inlay.