Lee Morgan – The Rajah

This sounds excellent though I do agree Paul Chambers bass is mixed a little too low.

Of all the Tone Poets I have to date (and I have many) this is the one I LOVE the most accessible, the most toe tapping wonderous golden sugar goodness. It's outstanding! From start to end... beautiful.....music from the gods!

Marvelous performance and sound quality on this 2023 pressing. I agree it is one of the best Lee Morgan records I own. For sure a must have!

(2023)The sound quality seems to be better than the 2021 release.
It has more rich and warm sounds.

Lee Morgan is my favorite jazz artist and I think this is one of his very best records. It is one of the best-sounding records I own. The detail and the way the percussion pops out of the speakers! Beautiful wide soundstage with instruments clearly placed and imaged. Quiet vinyl all the way from beginning to end, even the run-outs. My copy has a couple very small ticks at the start of "What Now My Love", which, by the way, is one of the most gorgeous ballads on any Lee Morgan record. The sound of the cymbals on that track is so clear and realistic, it is a "must hear". This is true audiophile sound. On the last track, Morgan does something he doesn't do too often...he takes a melody so familiar that it is almost trite and just swings it. The result fills my heart with joy every time I hear it. What a way to end an album!

I see negative reviews of this record and I shake my head: I can't understand it. I see someone criticizing the piano sound. Of course, Blue Note is legendary for poor piano sound; however, this is better than their average...not full and clear, but more vibrant and present than usual. Gorgeous artwork completes the picture; the photo of Lee Morgan on the cover is one of my favorite portraits of the man and there is a great photo of Hank Mobley looking contemplative on the inside of the gatefold. Speaking of Mobley, the way he pairs up with Lee Morgan throughout this album is pure delight for any jazz fan. They play like they are one man playing two instruments simultaneously. Like I said, Lee Morgan is my favorite, but any true Lee Morgan fan knows that his playing was inconsistent. He is at his very best on this record; if you want to demonstrate to someone how you can prefer Lee Morgan's trumpet to that of Miles Davis, look no further. (Luckily we don't have to choose; we can enjoy both!)

So glad to see this back in print. Very fun, interesting record with phenomenal sound quality. I have not been done wrong by any Tone Poet/Classic/80 series Lee Morgan releases.

As of today, this record is available again directly from Blue Note.

This record is worth it just to hear what Lee could do with a trumpet. There is a reason Dizzy Gillespie hired him in 1958 at the age of 17. People can easily preview the recording with the posted youtube links. My copy sounds fabulous.

Hank Mobley gets inspired by Lee too in a very nice way - his playing is GREAT here. This is a record you can really get into. Listen to it on a good system and you might get goosebumps. Cedar Walton also plays quite cleverly too. I love Billy Higgin's drums and especially his rimshots, his effective use of the tom-toms and floor tom sounds very realistic and I can easily hear Paul Chambers on bass.

But yeah, the Horns (and occasionally the piano) are really central space on this recording. If you are looking for a bass or percussion solo, it probably isn't the one to go for.

To all the pros and cons I have to add my 2 cents. This is not a very good sounding Blue Note, no bass, sterile, piano is awful. I have all Tone Poets and I have 95% of all the Blue Notes (450 records) up to the sale and I am a Jazz musician myself. Just to give you a picture from where the review is coming. They can do better. For my personal taste, you can skip this, the music is not the best, if you are a completist, get it, otherwise there are 10 better Lee Morgan Blue Notes around I would buy first.

A bit of an outlier is this Blue Note title reissued as part of the Tone Poet series. Everything sounds great - particularly the drums of Billy Higgins and one of the better recorded Blue Note era pianos. Horns sound nicely detailed. The bass is more prominent than some reviewers here would have you believe, it’s not in your face but it’s quite clearly audible.
Good mastering and a decent pressing.