Morgan, Al(bert)

Morgan, Al(bert), jazz bassist, tuba player, singer; b. New Orleans, La., Aug. 19, 1908; d. Los Angeles, Calif., April 14, 1974. Morgan came from a musical family; his older brothers, clarinetist/saxophonist Andrew (b. Pensacola, Fla., March 13, 1901; d. Sept. 19, 1972), and trumpeters Isaiah (b. Bertrandville, La., April 7, 1897; d. May 11, 1966) and Sam (b. Bertrandville, La., Dec. 18, 1887; d. Feb. 25, 1936), were all talented musicians. Al’s early efforts were on the clarinet and drums; then he started playing on a three-string bass (c. 1918), and then took lessons with Simon Marrero. He had his first professional jobs working with his brother, Isaiah, and then traveled to Pensacola, Fla., in 1923 with Lee Collins. He was back in New Orleans a year later, playing with Davey Jones’s Astoria Strutters on string bass then, after instruction from Jones, began doubling on double B-flat tuba. From 1925–29, he worked summer seasons with Fate Marable on the steamboat S.S. Capitol, during which time he studied under St. Louis bassist Cecil Scott. In fall 1929, he returned to New Orleans, and recorded with Jones-Collins Astoria Eight. In 1930, he journeyed to N.Y., and recorded with the Mound City Blue Blowers. He was with Otto Hardwick’s Band at the Hot Feet Club, N.Y. (c. 1930), then with Vernon Andrade’s Orch. until joining Cab Calloway from June 1932 until the spring of 1936 (including tour of Europe, 1934). He left Cab in Calif. and organized a band with Eddie Barefield; he later led his own band and worked with Fats Waller and with Louis Armstrong in the film Going Places. In the late 1930s, he joined Les Hites’s band, travelling with it back to N.Y. in 1940. He left Hite in spring 1941 to join Zutty Singleton’s Trio and also did many freelance recordings in various small groups. He played two long stints with the Sabby Lewis Band in Boston (March 1942-March 1944, and then 1946–57), taking a year off in 1945 to work with Louis Jordan. He moved to Calif. in February 1957, and worked with Joe Darensbourg, Jack McVea, and Nellie Lutcher. He also appeared in the films The Gene Krupa Story (Drum Crazy) and King Creole. Throughout the 1960s, he worked with pianist Buddy Banks as the resident duo at the Tudor Inn, in Norwalk, Calif.

—John Chilton,/Lewis Porter