A Tribute to Lee Morgan: Feven Kidane Plays Lee Morgan

Feven Kidane is one of the most exciting musicians on the Canadian Jazz Scene, packing venues all over Vancouver with a myriad of different projects, including several sold out shows at VIFF in recent years.

She’ll be returning on March 21st with an all-star group, paying tribute to the music and legacy of one of the greatest trumpeters in Jazz history, Lee Morgan. Before his life was tragically cut short at the age of 33, Morgan had quickly become one of the American Jazz scene’s biggest stars, from stints with Art Blakey, Wayne Shorter, and many more. On March 21st, Kidane will be celebrating his music, followed by a screening of I Called Him Morgan, a fascinating documentary about the life & times of this icon.

Feven Kidane – Trumpet
Piano – Suin Park
Bass – Milo Johnson
Drums – Karl DeJong

About the Film: I Called Him Morgan (Kasper Collin, Sweden, 2016, 92 min)

At the heart of Kasper Collin’s poignant and evocative documentary is the only interview with Helen More, widow of the jazz trumpet legend Lee Morgan (The Sidewinder), recorded many years after his shocking, premature death.

Helen had been Lee’s savior and redeemer when his heroin addiction put him on the street in the 1960s. To that point he’d been riding high, a teenage protégé of Dizzy Gillespie, who played with Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Herbie Hancock. More has her own story too, and they converged in a beautiful love affair — at least for a while.

You don’t have to be a jazz fan to appreciate the multiple, tragic ironies that makes this film such a sucker punch of a crime story, but by the end you will probably find yourself seeking out some more Lee Morgan sounds. Interviews with Wayne Shorter, Paul West and Jymie Merritt complete the picture.

Musicians sometimes paraphrase Debussy, or one another, in saying that music is the silence between the notes. I Called Him Morgan has it all — the notes and the silence, plus the music of spoken language, pitched in rueful tones of recollection.

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Using a dazzling blend of cinematic tools, aural as well as visual, Collin recreates both individual lives and an entire world.

Kenneth Turan, LA Times

A more comprehensive biography of Lee Morgan’s life and career would make a great documentary, but that is not this documentary. I Called Him Morgan is smaller than that and much bigger at the same time. It is about Lee and Helen and a love gone wrong; it is about how men use women; it is about genius and those who want a piece of it; and it is about what can and cannot be forgiven. Shot simply, delivered clearly, and accompanied by one hell of a soundtrack.

Ahamefule J. Oluo, The Stranger

Co-Presented with