Staying Alive

Tempo Magazine, The Taos News

COVER STORY

Frank Morgan takes it one note at a time

By Denise M. Spranger
Photo by Rick Romancito

When Frank Morgan says, "it's so beautiful," he's not just talking about the golden notes that spill from his saxophone into clubs and concert halls all over the world. He's talking about life.

Those who have enjoyed the rich tones and supple phrasing of Morgan's style, or are fortunate enough to the know the man behind them, may have found that life has become a little more beautiful for them, too.

Since Morgan's April 8, 2000, debut at the Taos Jazz Festival, the musician who has played alongside such jazz greats as John Coltrane, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald has made this Northern New Mexican community his home.

As Morgan sat down to have breakfast at the Southside Bean as he does most mornings, he recalled his first Taos gig.

"The audience was so beautiful," said Morgan. "I could hear them all holding their breath until I finished a phrase. I told them that if this is reflective of the community, I was going to live here."

The artist was true to his word. After a week-long club gig in New York City following his Jazz Festival performance, Morgan bought a ticket back to Taos.

"It's certainly one of the hippest decisions I ever made," said Morgan. "I never had it so good as far as having a feeling of community support." Between frequent greetings from passing customers and staff, Morgan laid down a "few riffs" from his own life.

Born in 1933 in Minneapolis, the son of the late Ink Spots guitarist Stanley Morgan, he remembers playing music before starting kindergarten.

"By the time I was two," said Morgan, "my father had put a guitar in my hands."

Yet it was not the guitar that would move the younger Morgan to become the internationally recognized jazz musician that he is today. At the age of seven, Morgan accompanied his father to the Paradise Theater in Detroit to hear Jay McShann's band. Walter Brown was singing "Hootie Blues" and Charlie Parker was playing saxophone.

"When Charlie stood up to take his first solo," said Morgan, "I turned to my father and said, 'That's it for the guitar.'"

If the decision to be an alto saxophone player struck him like a thunderbolt, Morgan fans remain grateful for the lightning.

After that Detroit performance, Morgan's father, who had toured with Parker out of Kansas City, took his son backstage to meet "Bird" himself.

"That's how Charlie Parker became my mentor when I was seven years old," said Morgan.
The relationship with Parker impacted the young musician in ways that neither father nor son could predict.

"It led to beautiful things musically, but it also darn near killed me personally," said Morgan. "I wanted to do everything he did. He became a drug addict, and so I spent the better part of my life doing that."

Before those troubles caught up with Morgan, his family first moved to Milwaukee and then to Los Angeles in 1947, where his father opened a nightclub called "Casablanca." The "heavy bopper" club hosted a number of celebrities, both on and off the stage.

At the age of 14, Morgan performed in a Los Angeles talent contest, which led to a solo recording session with Freddie Martin. Before reaching his 21st birthday, Morgan had become an accomplished alto saxophonist, playing with Miles Davis, another student of Parker's, and recording with Teddy Charles and Kenny Clark.

Struggles with drug addiction, hard times and even prison strike a familiar chord in the history of jazz, the sound of which evokes an American tragedy that tends to make better copy than successes. Morgan makes no attempt to romanticize those years, nor does he deny them.

"I'm very glad to have survived," said Morgan, "and I use my experience to let kids know that they don't have to do that."

Morgan has traveled extensively to work with youth, as well as giving lectures at numerous colleges nationwide. His upcoming schedule includes a return visit to Kilgore College in Texas, where he will give three lectures and two concerts.

Unlike many musicians who claim that they love their work but "the traveling is hell," Morgan loves life on the road.

"My favorite place in the world is an airport," said Morgan. Referring to his years of incarceration, Morgan added, "I spent so many years not going anywhere, to have the opportunity to be a world traveler and be where people are coming and going ... is such a delightful place to be."

While the yearning for travel would be high on anyone's wish list in a prison cell, an even more compelling need for Morgan was to remain connected to his music. When asked if he had his sax with him "inside," Morgan said with a smile, "If I hadn't, I would have escaped."

In fact, Morgan played in several bands made up of inmates, the finest being within the walls of San Quentin. It was there that Morgan had a dream that uncannily predicted a better future.

"In the dream I was taken to the Selmer saxophone factory in Paris. Technicians in white coats came in with horns on pillows, one by one, that they wanted me to try out."

Three years after Morgan's final release from prison in 1985, the renowned Selmer company which, according to Morgan, produces the "Rolls Royce" of saxophones, did indeed fly him to Paris.

"They didn't have the pillows," said Morgan, "but the rest came true." The company offered Morgan nine horns to take with him, but Morgan insisted on taking only one.

"In my life as a drug addict I had pawned or sold so many saxophones, I just wanted one," said Morgan. "I knew if I just had one, I wouldn't let anybody touch it."

Morgan described his astonishing comeback after becoming a free man, both from prison and from addiction.

"Since then it's been a fairy tale," said Morgan, laughing. "I mean, Cinderella wasn't nothing."

It's true that Cinderella never recorded over a dozen albums in 11 years, even when the shoes fit. Nor did she score a Jane Pauley prime-time special, or receive immediate rave reviews in The Village Voice.

Morgan's most recent 1996 recording, "Bop!" (Telarc), features Rodney Kedrick (piano), Curtis Lundy (bass), Leroy Williams (drums) and Ray Drummond sitting in on bass on the "52nd Street Theme." Earlier (Contemporary) '80s recordings saw the likes of Buster Williams (piano), Billy Higgins (drums) and Cedar Walton (piano).

Morgan suffered a stroke Aug. 15, 1998, on board an airplane. He contends that with the obvious exception of a hospital, he was in the best place he could be.

"There were three nurses and a doctor on board," said Morgan, "and one of the nurses was a specialist dealing with stroke patients."

Morgan credits both the nurse and the availability of oxygen for saving his life and minimizing damage. Although Morgan was initially paralyzed on the entire right side of his body, movement miraculously returned within three to four days.

"I spent a lot of time every day working my fingers," Morgan said with a smile, displaying the agility of the hands that dance the keys.

The incident left Morgan with one powerful residual effect.

"It taught me so much," he said. "It showed me how fleeting life can be."

The legendary sax player who just celebrated his 68th birthday Dec. 23, 2001, asserted that he is "a work in progress and counts on constantly evolving."

"I have a list a mile long of things to do in my life," said Morgan.

One of those things, somewhat remarkably for a man recovering from recent foot surgery, is skiing.

"I wouldn't feel right having lived in Taos all this time and not having skied," said Morgan.

When he's not on the road, or on the slopes, Morgan looks forward to future gigs at The Historic Taos Inn and, beginning Feb. 2, at Momentitos de la Vida in Arroyo Seco. Like many local jazz musicians, Morgan appreciates the atmosphere and relative quiet of the "Bar at Vida."

The musician who speaks about a "quiet side of myself that is rarely heard," values both acoustics and audience attentiveness.

"It gets better when the audience in their silent listening gets involved," said Morgan. "Then we have the opportunity to play better than we've ever played in our lives -- because if we can tap into the energy of all those beautiful minds and hearts, it raises us to another level."

Recently, Morgan performed a series of "Thursdays With Frank" at the Underground Studio in which a "listening-only audience" was invited.

With the recent addition of a new studio, Morgan plans to take on a few select music students. He also hopes to do more outreach work in the schools.

"I want to help motivate kids and let them know that there is a big world out there and they can do anything they want to do," said Morgan. "And it's so beautiful to be a living example of that."

As the annual February Black History month approaches, not only students, but the rest of us, might learn something from a man whose song of triumph resonates with all races and ages.

"I'm just thrilled and blessed to be alive," said Morgan. "And it's necessary as often as possible to hurry up and get grateful."