[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 164 (Monday, November 18, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1689-E1690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO DICK MORGAN

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                           HON. WM. LACY CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 18, 2013

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, Dick Morgan, who began his professional 
musical career as a child and spent decades as one of Washington's 
leading jazz pianists, died Oct. 20 in hospice care at the Village at 
Rockville retirement facility. He was 84 and resided in Silver Spring.
  He had prostate cancer, his wife, Sylvia Morgan, said.
  Since his arrival in Washington in 1960, Mr. Morgan had a long and 
steady career as a pianist in nightclubs, hotels and concert halls, 
including Blues Alley and the Kennedy Center. He recorded more than a 
dozen albums and performed over the years with many top singers and 
musicians, including Etta Jones, Joe Williams and Keter Betts.
  He was known as a versatile, crowd-pleasing pianist who could 
embellish a large repertoire of tunes with improvised flourishes that

[[Page E1690]]

reminded many listeners of piano stars Oscar Peterson and Erroll 
Garner.
  ``Dick showed you that jazz is fun,'' David Einhorn, Mr. Morgan's 
bass player for 17 years, said Wednesday in an interview. ``Dick was a 
guy who could bring you to tears and make you laugh and make you bounce 
in your seat, all in one song.''
  In the mid-1950s, when Mr. Morgan was working in Norfolk, the 
trombonist and bandleader Tommy Dorsey invited him to join his group in 
Las Vegas. The job was cut short when Dorsey died in 1956. During his 
time in Las Vegas, Mr. Morgan performed at a birthday party for Frank 
Sinatra, with Sinatra singing along with him.
  By the late 1950s, Mr. Morgan had returned to Norfolk, where he often 
worked with Virginia-born guitarist Charlie Byrd, who helped launch the 
bossa nova craze of the 1960s. Byrd helped bring Mr. Morgan to 
Washington, where he was soon leading a trio at the old Showboat Lounge 
in Adams Morgan.
  Saxophonist Julian ``Cannonball'' Adderley, then at the height of his 
fame, was so bowled over by what he heard from Mr. Morgan that he 
called his record label. Within a week, a recording crew came to 
Washington to capture Mr. Morgan in a live album, ``Dick Morgan at the 
Showboat'' (1960). His drummer on the recording, Bertell Knox, 
continued to work with Mr. Morgan for more than 50 years.
  ``I don't make any claims to be a first-class jazz pianist,'' Mr. 
Morgan told the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2007. ``I'm somebody that 
will immediately get immersed in the audience and get them to pay 
attention. That has carried me through the years. I play for the 
audiences--I don't play for me.''
  Richard Lewis Morgan was born June 5, 1929, in Petersburg, Va. By the 
time he was 5, he could play hymns from memory--after his mother had 
played them just once on the pump organ at his family's home.
  Largely self-taught on piano, Mr. Morgan had his own radio show in 
Petersburg when he was 10. He learned mostly from older musicians 
passing through nearby Fort Lee, Va., and had a early encounter with 
bandleader Duke Ellington, who encouraged his budding career.
  Mr. Morgan attended Virginia State University and played in an Army 
combo in the early 1950s.
  He often had extended hotel and club engagements in the Bahamas, 
Bermuda, Canada and Puerto Rico, but Mr. Morgan became a Washington 
fixture, with long residences at the Top of the Town in Arlington, 
Pirate's Hideaway in Georgetown and, more recently, the Madison Hotel 
in downtown D.C.
  In 1997, a Washington Post critic praised Mr. Morgan's album ``After 
Hours,'' noting that he ``taps into the essence of the blues'' and ``an 
engagingly blue mood envelops the listener, thanks to his rippling 
tremolos and leisurely paced turnarounds.''
  Mr. Morgan's final recording, the solo album ``Bewitched,'' was 
released in 2010. He gave his last performance in April.
  His first marriage, to the former Lois Josephine Fountain, ended in 
divorce. He was predeceased by a son from an earlier relationship, 
James Morgan, and a stepson, Roland Everett.
  Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Sylvia Everett Morgan of 
Silver Spring; a daughter from his first marriage, Anita M. Harris-
Jones of Norfolk; a stepdaughter, L. Verlon Colwell of Washington; 
seven grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and five great-great-
grandchildren.
  When he was approaching 50, Mr. Morgan returned to college at the 
behest of a friend, comedian Bill Cosby, and graduated in 1979 from the 
Washington program of Antioch College. He received a law degree from 
Howard University in 1983 but never pursued a legal career, preferring 
to stay at the piano.
  ``He really touched audiences because of how he understood the music 
and how he could convey what the music was saying,'' Steve Abshire, his 
guitarist for the past 29 years, said Wednesday. ``He had a way of 
communicating the music that went straight to the heart.''

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