Memorial Service for Frank Morgan

  I  

Alto saxophonist Frank Morgan died at age 73 of complications from colon cancer at his Minneapolis home on Dec. 14. Morgan will be remembered at a memorial service Dec. 23, at the Artists’ Quarter in St. Paul, Minn.

He was born in Minneapolis and returned there in 2005 to live with his cousin Melanie Taylor and her husband Lance Taylor. The event will include brief remembrances from his family members and Twin Cities jazz community members, followed by the music of tenor saxophonist Irv Williams and other Twin Cities jazz musicians. Dec. 23 would have been Morgan’s 74th birthday. The memorial service is from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

More info: artistsquarter.com



  • Buster_Williams_by_Jimmy_Katz_copy.jpg

    “What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.

  • Don_and_Maureen_Sickler_by_Richard_Halterman_copy_2.jpg

    Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.

  • 241e91ef-80d3-7409-17b8-d66ab05d21a1_EE.jpg

    ​The Free Slave, Cosmos Nucleus and Sunset To Dawn: three classic Muse albums being reissued this fall by Timer Traveler Recordings.

  • Butcher_Brown_by_Jacky_Flav_copy.jpg

    Butcher Brown, clockwise from top left: Marcus Tenney, DJ Harrison, Morgan Burrs, Corey Fonville and Andrew Randazzo. (Keyboardist Harrison couldn’t make the gig, so special guest Jacob Mann sat in with the band at the Reno Jazz Festival.)

  • Darius_Jones_JazzEmAgosto_2025_By_Petra_Cvelbar.jpg

    ​This year’s Jazz em Agosto set by the Darius Jones Trio captured the titular alto saxophonist at his most ferocious.