The Complete Live at the Lighthouse

In July 1970, trumpeter Lee Morgan was on the road, and brought his band into the Lighthouse, a popular club in Hermosa Beach, CA, for a week-long stand. Blue Note recorded twelve full sets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, eventually releasing a 2LP set featuring four side-long performances of brand-new compositions by various bandmembers. That was expanded to a 3CD set in the ’90s, and this 8CD box presents at long last everything that was recorded, in order. The band — Bennie Maupin on reeds, Harold Mabern on piano, Jymie Merritt on bass, Mickey Roker on drums — shifts capably between steaming hard bop and more adventurous territory, with Maupin’s solos in particular taking a more avant-garde path. Almost every track is well over 10 minutes long, with two versions of Merritt’s “Absolutions” stretching to 22 minutes each. Morgan lets the band play at length, but when he steps to the microphone, it’s clearly his show; his solos (on trumpet and flugelhorn) are powerful and confident.