THE SLAPPING CAREER OF BASSIST AL MORGAN 1

Musical roots in New Orleans and first lessons

Born and raised in a New Orleans family (father Isaiah—1860-1924—was a lumberman and farm laborer, and good singer; mother Harriet Smoothers married in 1884 was a church assistant), Albert Morgan had 3 professional musician brothers among his 5 siblings: Sam, who played the trumpet and had his own orchestra until he died of a heart attack during a Mardi Gras parade in 1936; Isaiah Jr. (1897-1966), who had the same career as Sam; and Andrew (1901-1972), who was a clarinetist and saxophonist. They lived in the French part of town, near Bourbon Street, around Ursuline and Dauphine Streets. LIke any New Orleans kid, Al was captivated by the parades he used to watch. Al’s music education varies according to testimonies. For Richard Freedman and Nat Hentoff who each wrote an article about him respectively in 1940 and 1946, Albert first studied the clarinet at 9, then switched to drums with some success, already beating it out in the street parades at only 10. According to Al in his 1958 oral interview with William Russell, his first instrument was bass:

“It was fascinating to me. I used to watch, sit there and watch, Simon Morrero [revered bass player in Sam Morgan’s orchestra], and my oldest brother [Sam] used to say, ‘Don’t bother that man. Let him play his instrument.’ So, I’ll never forget, Simon told my brother, ‘Sam, you don’t know, this boy might be a great bass player someday. Let him go, if he wants to learn.’ (…) He was the first one started me to reading and showed me how to bow bass. ‘Always learn the bow of the bass’ (…) I used to practically live at his house, and I learned a lot from him. He used to repair his own bass, and take them down, and I learned everything about a bass fooling with him.”

Albert got actually his first bass, thanks to his professor, Simon Morrero:

“When I first started, I bought the bass about the day after Lent, right after Mardi Gras. This Simon Marrero sold me a bass for seven dollars, and I’ll never forget. I had been working as a shoe shine boy then out on Royal St. Charles Street, like that in those little shoe shine stand, and I made nice money. I had about forty dollars, then, and I give him money to buy me a bow and strings and paid him for the bass. (…) He had a bass method book that have a fingerboard in it. (…) I started studying that thing, and showed me the different keys. (…) I was mostly bowing, because he wanted me to get the sound of the bass better. I did pretty good during the Lenten months and when the season it opened up that Easter, first job I had was with my brother Isaiah with his little band. Just that one job, one of those picnics out on the Milneburg. I did pretty good. I used to go to rehearsals with different little groups, and carry on just to get in practice like that. I couldn’t play with the fast bands then, but I found myself, and the first tune I remember playing was The Sheik of Araby.”

SS. Capitol: Al Morgan's office during his days with Fat Marable.

First professional engagements

Within the six months he learned the instrument, Al had his own seven-piece band! Morgan was also a member of trumpeter Henri ‘Kid’ Rena’s Dixie Jazz Band that had Simon Marrero and his brother Eddie also on the bandstand. He had a few jobs with cornet player Buddy Petit’s band.

In 1923, he moved to Pensacola, FL with Lee Collins (Edmond Hall was on clarinet) where he was “bought” by Mack Thomas for his Pensacola Jazzers. The trumpeter and singer Lee Collins later became one of his employers. In 1924, Morgan joined Joe Winn’s band.

Albert was gifted enough to also play the baritone saxophone, and he even learned bass tuba when he was playing in Davey Jones’s orchestra at the Astoria Roof Garden in New Orleans. Coleader and founder of the Original Tuxedo Orchestra, William ‘Bébé’ Rigley was then on trombone.

Famous “piano wizard” and bandleader Fate Marable noticed Al Morgan the Astoria while he was playing in Davey Jones’s orchestra. Samuel B. Charters in “Jazz New Orleans, 1885-1957” explains the proposition:

“He got an offer to join Fate Marable’s Orchestra on the S.S. Capitol if he could double on sousaphone.  He carried a sousaphone mouthpiece with him for two weeks, playing it as he walked around the streets.”

Starting in the summer of 1927, with Fate Marable’s orchestra, he went up and down the Mississippi on riverboats, a particularly formative experience, since he played with the likes of Zutty Singleton, Pops Foster (2 basses in the orchestra at that time), Baby Dodds, and many others. Fate took very good care of his protégé Al:

“We used to sit there and Fate Marable—we had two pianos: J. Burroughs Lovinggood, and Fate Marable himself right there. And they used to set me between bass and those two pianos. He’d get up and, and from seven o’clock in the morning up until noon, I would go downstairs and sit on the bandstand. (…) He marked my music, marked the fingering on my instrument.”

Travel and learn with Fate Marable

Al Morgan recalled that Fate Marable used to “check the rhythm accuracy of his musicians with a watch and that he found out that Al had the best rhythm and timing sense” (in R. V. Freedman, “Is Al Morgan the “Forgotten Man” of American Jazz?”, Down Beat, Feb 1, 1940).

Al Morgan also played sousaphone in 1927 on S.S. Island Queen (the only pleasure boat reserved for African Americans) with Sidney Desvigne’s band, along with Red Allen (tp), Bill Matthews (tb), Paul Barnes and Horace Miller (as), Louis Cottrell (ts), Fats Pichon (p), Willie Foster (g), Pops Foster (string bass) and Louis Barbarin (d). They were working from 8 to 12 pm, seven nights a week, plus a 2-5 matinee on Sundays.

When he stayed in St. Louis, Al Morgan took private lessons on his instrument with bassist Cecil Scott. This influenced his style to the point that some believe he later influenced Louis Jordan’s music. In late 1929, Morgan left Marable. With drummer Eugene Hill, he went to Oklahoma City to join the reeds player Alvin ‘Fats’ Wall’s orchestra for a year. After running “into another fast group, all fine musicians, young, and they could read”, Al decided to return to the boat. In New Orleans, Al made his first recording: Damp Weather Test with The Jones & Collins Astoria Hot Eight. Duet Stomp, recorded that same day is another great tune to listen to.

Vernon Andrade Orchestra: George Washington (tb), Clarence Wheeler (tp), Louis Metcalf (tp), Al Morgan,
Vernon Andrade (ldr, g+bjo), Julius Fields (piano, holding the bjo), Zutty Singleton (dms),
Gene Mikell (reeds), Tom Thomas (sax and oboe), Happy Caldwell (ts, cl).
Source: Black Beauty, White Heat, Frank Driggs & Harris Lewine

Leaving for New York

On September 30, 1929, Al Morgan was one of the Buddies who backed Fats Waller for a recording session in New York, probably after his friend Hendy Red wired him to get there. They recorded Looking Good But Feelin’ Bad and I Need Somebody Like You. Harry Allen (tp), Jack Teagarden, (tb/vb), Albert Nicholas, Otto Hardwick (as), Larry Binyon (ts), Eddie Condon (bj), Gene Krupa (d) and the Four Wanderers (voc) took part in that wonderful session.

In June 1930, Al Morgan traveled with the Lee Collins orchestra for a contest between bands in Chicago. Both were playing from wagons posted near the Regal Theater. In Collins’ band were Kid Howard (tp), Theodore Purnell (as), George Washington (tb), Davey Jones (ts, his former boss who earlier played with the Robinson’s Syncopators), Joe Robicheaux (p), Danny Barker (g – who will later play with Cab in the ‘30s), Roy Evans (d).

Soon after, Morgan left for New York. In his autobiography, Pops Foster reminisces:

“A lot of guys who’d come to New York heard about the Band Box, and they would come in there with their horns when they hit town, wanting to battle with the guys. We’d get one of the hotshots like Coleman Hawkins or Chu Berry to come down, and they’d go at it. Albert Morgan, Sam’s brother. hit town from New Orleans one day and started shooting his head off about how he could play bass. The guys came and got me out of bed to come down for a little cutting contest. When he saw me come in, he told everybody he knew me in New Orleans and I was his friend and he wouldn’t play against me. I went along and said, "No, I won’t play against Morgan, he’s my friend,” and I wanted to see him get some work around there. He was a very nice kid.”

In the Big Apple, Al Morgan joined the clarinetist and saxophonist Otto Hardwick’s band at the Happy Feet Club (Otto started in his youth on string bass!), with whom he stayed for several months. He then joined Vernon Andrade’s band for a long stay at the Renaissance and the Savoy ballroom from where they regularly broadcast (too bad the band never recorded).

SInger Billy Banks

Some very convincing sessions for a new boss…

Al Morgan played and recorded with the Mound City Blue Blowers with the likes of Glenn Miller, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Condon, Jack Bland, Gene Krupa, Red McKenzie and Coleman Hawkins (very promising band, isn’t it?). On “Hello, Lola” (November 14, 1929), Hawkins’ solo is highly regarded, especially thanks to Al Morgan’s swing.

Al Morgan recorded 8 songs in February and August 1931 with calypso singer Wilmoth Houdini backed by Gerald Clark’s Night Owls. Those rare tracks are considered to be pioneers of the Calypso sound, even if you can hear typical Al Morgan’s groove. When Al’s profile was published in 1940 in Down Beat, he confessed to the journalist that “the records all went to the West Indies, so we’ll never find out what happened there.” In fact, they were recorded for Brunswick only for export, hence their vanishing until a Collectors’ Series album released in the USA in 1941.

During his time in the band of Billy Banks (a singer in the mold of Cab), Morgan took part in two recording sessions whose undeniable musical and rhythmic qualities are partly based on the slapping produced by Al Morgan (“Bugle Call Rag”, “Margie”, “The Scat Song”...).  Guitarist Eddie Condon recalls in his Scrapbook (1973): “The records were uniformly very good and still sound good even though they are forty years old.” Pee Wee Russell on his own, told that “singer Banks was late for the session, the musicians decided to go ahead and cut an instrumental while they waited” (Pee Wee Russell: The Life of a Jazzman, Robert Hilbert).

Cab Calloway's orchestra in 1932 with 3 new recruits:
Doc Cheatham (tp, next to Cab), Eddie Barefield (as, next to Cab) and Al Morgan on bass.

Time for a change in Cab’s orchestra

We can obviously imagine that Al Morgan’s excellent performance during this session counted a lot in Cab’s decision to hire him.  Who told Cab about this? How did he find out? Anyway, the King of Hi De Ho wanted the best for his band.  And it was time for him to get rid of another one of the Missourians, Jimmy Smith, the tuba and double bass player. As Alyn Shipton wrote in his biography of Cab:

“Cab recognized that Jimmy Smith had not made an entirely effective transition from tuba to double bass, so he [...] had to go, to be replaced by Al Morgan, a scion of a leading New Orleans jazz dynasty and one of the most propulsive bassists of the era. If Cab could not hire Wellman Braud, whom he so admired, away from Ellington, Morgan was the next best thing.” Old tuba’s sound was dated and, as Shipton (who is also a professional bassist) notes, Morgan’s “strong arpeggios and percussive slap technique were to fit perfectly in Cab’s band with Payne’s subtle piano and Maxey’s drumming.” 

The orchestra now sounded more "modern," thanks in part to trumpeter Doc Cheatham replacing Reuben Reeves (Sept. 1931) and the addition of saxophonist Eddie Barefield (June 1932). The three of them will have their first session with Cab on June 7.

The impact of slap, from the very first sessions with Calloway

From his very first recording session with Cab Calloway, Al Morgan adds his touch to the band’s sound, and the engineers sound as if they understood it, because every note of Al’s is beautifully captured by electric microphones. On “Dinah”, we hear Al Morgan’s strong notes particularly well, as if to mark the difference with his predecessor...

When the orchestra returned to the studio two days later, they chose to record “Reefer Man”, with lyrics by Andy Razaf (Fats Waller’s regular lyricist) and music by J. Russel Robinson (former member of the Original Dixieland Jass Band!). It’s a new song and this is its first recording. Did Calloway, the producer or the musicians (or even Morgan himself!) already know of Morgan’s potential? This reminds me of the later case of “Jonah Joins the Cab”, recorded just a few days after Jonah Jones joined the orchestra... The song starts with Morgan’s bass and is therefore almost a duet between Cab’s frenetic vocals and Al’s frenetic slapping. “Reefer Man” would soon become Al Morgan’s personal theme and signature routine on stage during the Cotton Club Parade in October 1932.

In the same June 9 session, “Old Man of The Mountain” and “You Gotta to Ho-De-Ho” both have a unique dynamic that proves the entire orchestra and Cab are in a wonderful energetic state.

“Strange as It Seems”, recorded a few days later on June 22, is another opportunity to hear the peculiar groove Al Morgan injects into the band. His great drive seems to help drummer Leroy Maxey to catch some breaks and gives suppleness to this playing and the whole rhythm section.

“Hot Toddy”, my personal favorite, is a rare early instrumental in Cab’s repertoire, composed and arranged by Benny Carter. Even though the reeds and horns have the best parts here, the groove that the rhythm section drives is so powerful that no one can deny the fact that Al Morgan’s slapping notes turn up the heat.

The powerful swing of Al Morgan will help the orchestra to enhance its musical qualities on records and, added to Al’s stage personality, will provide new visual effects on the bandstand.

"Reefer Man" features Al Morgan and Cab Calloway in the movie International House (1933)

Already starting in 1932, Al Morgan’s photogenic knack was noticed by cinematographers who captured his stage behavior and face expressions on film: The Big Broadcast of 1932, shot in August that year gives a first impression. But the most impactful sequence is “The Reefer Man” during the movie International House (1933). At last, what privileged people had been able to see at the Harlem’s Cotton Club was available to the general audience all around the nation and the globe.

A wonderful testimony of Al Morgan’s “authority” in Cab Calloway’s orchestra is the Paramount Reel, filmed in 1933. While Cab Calloway sings "The Scat Song", the ONLY musician we see closer than anyone else is the bass player, slapping, his bow in one hand.

The short-movie Cab Calloway’s Hi-De-Ho (1934) allows another encounter with Al Morgan, picking his bass while lying in his berth.

In Cab Calloway’s Jitterbug Party (1935), Al Morgan will benefit from an 11 second almost exclusive shot at him!  The end of the movie has a private party scene where a close frame shows Cab singing while Al shakes his bass without playing it. But the glance Al gives to his boss is very admiring.

Cab Calloway and his crew arrive in Paris, on April 23, 1934. Tonight, they will set Pleyel on fire.
Al Morgan is right behind Cab, with a cap.

The 1934 European tour with Cab Calloway

At every date between March and late April 1934 during the Cab Calloway tour of Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, and France, Al Morgan was featured during the “Reefer Man” number. He was noticed spinning, twirling, and shaking his instrument during the concerts.

In the 1940 Down Beat article, Freedman explains:

“Panassié, and a lot of other Parisians, practically carried Al around, because they knew his work very well from the early New York recordings. (…) Morgan became ‘Smokey Joe’ while he was in Paris. ‘Smokey Joe’ is really nothing but Minnie the Moocher’s mythical boyfriend, but the Frenchmen wanted to know who and where about good old Smokey. Cab decided that Al could play the part, so he was officially elected Smokey Joe, and everyone was happy all around. ‘Sharp’ became another nickname by now because Al has always been well dressed.”

Al Morgan confessed that the “Worst part of the trip was the expense of supplying the large photographs the fans wanted, cost of printing being high over there.”

One of those "expensive" postccards...

The hottest star of the French jazz press

The French jazz magazine Jazz Tango Dancing had already noticed Al Morgan in its January and February 1932 issues, with the Mound City Blue Blowers records by Red McKenzie. The “velvety yet solid touch” of Al Morgan in the rhythm section (Eddie Condon on banjo, Gene Krupa on drums, and Al on bass!) is much appreciated. From now on, Al Morgan would remain a favorite of French critic Hugues Panassié, even with the Calloway records: Panassié wrote that Al Morgan saved them every time! Already in its September 1932 issue, Jazz Tango Dancing noted that "Cab Calloway’s orchestra is improving because it has just been enhanced by Al Morgan, the hottest, with [Pops] Foster, of the double bass players."

But during the European tour of 1934, the positive reviews raved about Al Morgan:

• “Al Morgan, the bassist of the bassists” (De Wereld, April 1934).

• “The general admiration was for Al Morgan’s brilliant bass playing” (Holland unidentified press clip after April 22 concert in Den Haag).

• Another instance, in Jazz Tango Dancing dated March 1934, after Cab’s concerts in Holland, journalist H.-H. Niesen, Jr. writes: “Al Morgan is a magnificent double bass player with the greatest swing imaginable. Most of the time he plays at the rate of four or eight beats per bar, but never in a mechanical way; his playing is, on the contrary, full of life and extremely musical. I wouldn’t say that Al Morgan is superior to Pops Foster or Artie Bernstein, but that the latter two musicians have to play their double basses in an extraordinary way to even match Al Morgan.”

• N.-J Canetti explains in the same magazine about the Parisian concerts: “[Cab Calloway’s orchestra] exists only in its conductor; if it weren’t for the prodigious Al Morgan on double bass, we wouldn’t know who to name. (...) Al Morgan is a musician who alone is worth the effort, even two nights in a row, to hear the entire orchestra. Not being a double bass specialist, it’s hard for me to explain how Al Morgan manages to create a rhythm, a swing, that’s impossible to resist. I’m delighted with the standing ovation he received at his special performance in ‘Reefer Man’; it proves that there were a number of connoisseurs in the audience capable of appreciating a musician whose work we’ve never heard before in France. Al Morgan is, moreover, a delectable comedian, who made us swallow Benny Payne’s interminable piano medley with a smile.”

Note that the American jazz press didn’t pay any attention to Morgan before 1940...

“Al likes working with Calloway and admits that while Cab is primarily a showman, the widespread opinion that Cab knows nothing about music is a fallacy. He is no Stovall or Hodges on his sax, but he does know his music.” (in Nat Hentoff, 1946)