I Called Him Morgan (2017) Review

Title: I Called Him Morgan
Year: 2017
Director: Kasper Collin
Country: US
Language: English

While La La Land may have been the most critically acclaimed musical in 2016, winning a Best Director Oscar (among other awards) for Damien Chazelle, it white-washed the mighty subject of Jazz. Long awaited biopics of Miles Davis and Chet Baker also appeared in theatres, but went unnoticed. Netflix's documentary I Called Him Morgan seems to have hit the right notes, coming closer to Jazz history than Ryan Gosling's venture.

The film is an exploration of the relationship between jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, who was implicated in his murder in 1972.

Virtually everything about the great trumpeter Lee Morgan was prodigious. Even in his late teens he was working with Dizzie Gillespie's orchestra. Overflowing with confidence, at first the man seemed to have all a young man would want, yet a heroine addiction would bring about his fall from grace. At his lowest he would meet the woman who would become his wife, and this relationship is primarily what the film is about. 

Focusing equally on Lee Morgan and his wife Helen Moore, part of the film tells the story through witnesses and friends of the couple, while the other part is a real-life interview recorded on a scratchy cassette tape. It gives you a real sense of the era and the events of the time, making its audience feel as if they had lived through the 60's with the subjects. 

 The occasional visual flourish - some vintage photography - is used tastefully and gives the film more of a poetic atmosphere. I Called Him Morgan evokes the frenetic energy of Jazz music in a way that most Hollywood films have failed to do.