Whiplash - soundtrack

A1	The Sidewinder	
A2	Totem Pole	
B1	Gary's Notebook	
B2	Boy, What A Night	
B3	Hocus-Pocus

Produced by Alfred Lion
Produced for release by Michael Cuscuna
Recording by Rudy Van Gelder
Recording at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood, New Jersey on December 21, 1963

Some of the Liner Notes:
The title number might best be described as a long-meter blues (24 measures to the chorus). "The tune kind of put me in mind of the sidewinder - you know, the 'bad guy' on television," says Lee. "There's a snake called the sidewinder, but I was thinking of the bad guy." If the character and mood seems a little different from that of the average blues, you can attribute it to the unexpected change at bars 17-18 of each chorus, when a minor chord is introduced. The fascinating rhythm section figure established during the opening ensembles is sustained throughout the solos, giving the performance a deep blue tinge as well as a Latin touch. Lee's solo, fluent and sensitively constructed, never becomes grandstandy and relies at times on essentially simple devices, such as the repeated B Flat in the last of his three choruses. Henderson's solo is rich in melodic variety (note the contrast between the busy opening and simple continuation in his second chorus). Harris' piano picks up in intensity as it goes along, aided on his third chorus by the horns' backing. Cranshaw bears out Lee's complimentary observations in a fine solo that owes part of its success to the continued pulsing of Billy Higgins' percussion figures. 

Totem Pole, named for the effect of Lee's alternation with Joe, is a group of six notes they play going into and coming out of the release. The E Flat Minor theme is strengthened by the effective contrast of Latin rhythm on the main passage and a straight 4/4 in the release. 

Boy, What A Night is also a blues waltz, but this time with more of a funky feeling and a 12/8 meter, with a very basic character to both melody and changes. "Remember the old Avery Parrish blues After Hours?" says Lee. "You'll notice that during the main figure, the bass and the piano are playing the rhythm out of that. We tried this a lot of different ways - first as a straight blues, then double-up time, then with the three four feeling - until it finally came out the way it is here." On his solo here, it seems to me Lee reflects some of the Gillespie influence in his phrasing and in the ability to string ideas together at considerable length. Note Harris' sly fills in the closing reprise of the theme, and the old-timey blues ending. 

Hocus-Pocus is, as Lee comments, "Just a simple tune, a nice easy blowing thing with the standard chorus length. I wanted to get away from straight blues. After I'd written it Barry Harris pointed out that the changes are the same as Mean To Me, except for a slight difference in the channel." 

Joe Henderson and Lee are both displayed to advantage in the straight-ahead swinging groove of this performance. Barry, in his choruses, shows not only a wealth of ideas but a sturdy technique, often kept latent but occasionally made more openly evident in a flurry of sixteenth notes. The theme is repeated twice at the end, once to feature Billy Higgins and then with regular ensemble. 

- LEONARD FEATHER 

Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder (Full LP on Original Vinyl)

West Coast DFA affiliated duo Classixx round out our Italo disco special live from New York, taking us on a journey of disco, pop, house & techno. It doesn't get much better than this.

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Siddharth Sutar