A musician has to be damn sure of himself to open an album with an emphatic two-minute version of ''When You Wish Upon a Star.'' Morgan is that sure. An alto saxophonist who came up in the fervent days of bop, he was off the scene for decades — mostly doing time for drug addiction — before rebuilding his career in the mid-'80s. His style is now so personal and laconic that he can do more with a sigh or a holler than he used to with the dazzling arpeggios he learned at the feet of Charlie Parker. A Lovesome Thing has a languid, sultry quality — an after-hours feeling. It boasts a first-class rhythm section, superb tunes, and guest appearances by trumpeter Roy Hargrove (who sounds a bit like Kenny Dorham on ''Helen's Song'') and Abbey Lincoln, who sings a stunningly original version of the ancient Rodgers and Hart lament ''Ten Cents a Dance.'' Morgan is at his introspective best on Billy Strayhorn's ''A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing,'' Matt Dennis and Tom Adair's ''Everything Happens to Me'' (credited to the wrong composers in the notes), and Wayne Shorter's blues waltz ''Footprints.'' A
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