Audience Member
Honestly this was the best documentary I've watched. I experienced every emotion watching this . Thank you for telling Lee and Helen's story
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/08/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This film won't appeal to all viewers, and it may even evoke a flat response from some viewers who think they know jazz. Swedish director, Kasper Collin, has invested seven years in assembling the pieces of his precious evidence into a story that is as simple or as complex as the viewer of the film chooses to make it. The subject is the brilliant, much-recorded trumpet star, Lee Morgan, who was shot and killed by his wife as he returned to the bandstand at Slug's Saloon in Manhattan on a cold and wintry night in 1972. He was 33 years old.
Coincidentally, the film is a modern version of the story told in the old 12-bar blues-folk song, "Frankie and Johnny," once recorded by Elvis Presley. In the song, Frankie catches her sworn lover Johnny with another woman and guns him down. After a jailer places Frankie in a dungeon cell and throws away the key, the song ends with the repeated refrain: "He was her man but he done her wrong."
"I Called Him Morgan" is a more complex love story than the song's morality tale of marital infidelity and the harm to both individuals in a relationship. First, the movie predictably calls our attention to the undeniable brilliance of Morgan, a trumpet prodigy who at age 16 had already made enough of an impression back home for tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter to remember talking about him with comrades in the Army. But it's Helen Morgan (who coincidentally had the same last name as Lee) who emerges as the truly fascinating, strong character in the film. A willful young woman with a remarkable thirst for adventure and self-knowledge, she had left the South and her two children--one that she had given birth to at the age of 13 and the other at 14--in order to taste personal freedom and experience the bigger world that had been taken away from her as a child.
After migrating to NYC, where she rents an apartment close to Birdland (the club known as "the jazz corner of the world"), Helen begins to command the attention of both women and men with her attractive figure, stylish tastes, and, as she puts it, "sharp" tongue. Her strong character could not have come at a better time for Lee Morgan, who shows up in mid-winter on her doorstep-- cold, barefoot and hopelessly addicted to heroin (he had swapped his shoes for his last fix). Despite having produced upwards of 10 albums under his own name for the legendary Blue Note label, Lee Morgan--once as recognizable for his big and bold sound on the horn as for his stylish threads and cocksure attitude--had hit rock bottom by age 26.
His resurgence and return to form along with the flaws of character that lead him to a fatal destiny comprise the last half of a film that moves along with the irresistible force of an Art Blakey drum solo. It wasn't until the closing credits that this viewer came to a realization that the movie is primarily a collection of still photographs (the most noteworthy of which are the kinetic, soulful compositions by Blue Note's "one-man art department," the legendary Francis Wolf). Introductory film courses usually stress that all movies consist of just two elements: "mis en scéne" (the content of the shot) and "montage" (the arrangement, or editing, of the shots). This movie excells at both, and both are Oscar-worthy. Certainly director Kasper Collin deserves credit--not only for making the film but for securing the words of Helen Morgan who, a mere month before her death, accepted a standing invitation to record her story--without which the film would be little more than another "biopic."
The filmmaker steers clear of the well-worn, profitable paths. Instead, he sticks to "the facts," confident in their power to tell their own story. Like jazz--the music that draws Helen and Lee to each other, and attracts the viewer to both Morgans through Lee's trumpet (heard on the soundtrack)--their life-stories are honest and real, urgent and purposeful, dedicated to finding themselves through a misunderstood, shamefully neglected art form. "I Called Him Morgan" is a good jazz film because the director, a saxophonist himself, omits the "jive" (the pejorative term used by musicians to separate the phony stuff from the authentic and vital African-American art form).
In the end "I Called Him Morgan" is less a jazz documentary than an artful presentation of a tragedy of fate that is ultimately more about Helen Morgan (whose speaking voice we hear) than Lee. The soundtrack, which more than one critic proclaims as "rich with Morgan's best-known music," uses only one of his recordings: the title track from his 1966 Blue Note album "Search for the New Land." The only other music we hear by Lee is his playing during the film's closing credits. But just before the end is a surprising if not startling "coda," which most of the professional critics choose to ignore. The coda transforms the story from a tragedy of fate to a celebration of homecoming and triumph. Collin's instincts have ultimately led him to focus on the speaker of the film's title, tracing her thoughts and actions on the night of the homicide and then picking up on her life's journey in the days, months and years of her conviction and release. On the strength of Helen's speaking voice (which has an uncanny resemblance to Billie Holiday's), the film distinguishes itself from all the other films about jazz, most of which, like "I Called Him Morgan," end badly for the featured musician. The difference in this story is that, thanks to Helen Morgan (and her "advocate" in the Coda), we see how the music empowers those who take the time to understand it.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Precioso documental sobre Lee y Helen Morgan. Lee fue uno de los trompetistas mas grande en la historia del jazz gracias, en parte, a Helen, la mujer que los rescató de la heroína y lo puso en marcha de nuevo a pesar de los años que le llevaba. Gran historia, muy bien narrada.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
On paper, it's not the most unique story--dramatic though it is. But the way it unfolds in these interviews and archival recordings is really compelling. The whole thing is just heartbreaking, on so many levels.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Just amazing how well this story was told with mainly found footage and some interviews. It's captivating!
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Captivating footage and interviews. A must-see!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
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