I Called Him Morgan

Sweden/USA, Feature Documentary, 2016, 92 min

“An intriguing exposé of a gripping story.” HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

On a snowy night in 1972, legendary trumpeter Lee Morgan was playing at a club in Harlem when his wife walked in and shot him dead. Only 33, Morgan had already lived a life that could be a movie. At 18, he was recruited by Dizzy Gillespie for his band, and two years later, he became the front-man for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Then heroin caused his career to collapse. But now he was back on top, playing better than ever before. While researching this film, director Kasper Collin came across a documentarian’s bombshell, a long-forgotten tape of an extensive interview with Helen Morgan made just before she died in 1996. Lee Morgan’s film biography then becomes narrated by his murderer. With a great jazz soundtrack played mostly by Morgan, Collin captures the easygoing, bluesy cool of ’60s Manhattan.

Directed by Kasper Collin

Executive Producer and Distribution Advisor Dan Braun