Frank Morgan was an American alto saxophonist and composer born on December 23, 1933, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The son of guitarist Stanley Morgan, who played with the Ink Spots, he switched from guitar to saxophone after hearing Charlie Parker and studied at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles under Samuel Rodney Browne alongside future luminaries including Dexter Gordon, Art Farmer, and Billy Higgins. Morgan recorded his debut as a leader for GNP Records in 1955, but a decades-long struggle with addiction kept him away from the recording studio until his celebrated comeback album Easy Living in 1985 on Contemporary Records. From that point through his death in 2007, he recorded prolifically, producing albums for Contemporary, Antilles, and other labels. While Morgan was primarily celebrated as an interpreter in the bebop tradition, his original compositions reveal a writer deeply rooted in the blues and the harmonic language of Parker. His tunes on AllSolos include Neil's Blues, Chooch, Whippet, and HUH!, pieces that reflect both his melodic directness and his capacity for rhythmic surprise. He frequently collaborated with pianists Cedar Walton, Ronnie Mathews, and George Cables. Morgan died on December 14, 2007, in Minneapolis, nine days before his seventy-fourth birthday.
