Lee Morgan Sextet, Vol. 2 (Rudy Van Gelder Edition)

Years before Lee Morgan's jazz boogaloo "The Sidewinder" made hip Blue Note sides jukebox staples, the label helped introduce the most exciting bop trumpeter to carry on the tradition of the late Clifford Brown. Morgan also figured out how to play bristling, lyrical solos using a Harmon mute without sounding like Miles Davis. You can hear as much on Benny Golson's standard "Whisper Not," a new tune that Morgan sounded like he'd played for years. For this 1956 date, jazz tunesmith Golson penned four numbers; Blue Note mainstay Hank Mobley blows tenor, and Horace Silver drips with funky soul at the piano. But Morgan upstages them all. His improvised lines are brassily supple, and his accents dance all over the beats. Morgan's confidence, his ability to improvise striking phrases and string them together into flowing statements, would be extraordinary even if he hadn't been 18, and still growing.