Search for the New Land
Occupation
- Trumpet: Lee Morgan
- Tenor Saxophone: Wayne Shorter
- Piano: Herbie Hancock
- Guitar: Grant Green
- Bass: Reggie Workman -
- Drums: Billy Higgins
Search for the New Land is a jazz album by Lee Morgan, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder in Englewood Cliffs on February 15, 1964 and 1966 was released by Blue Note Records.
The album
Ted Gioia writes in his History of Jazz that Morgan spent most of his career spent to repeat the successful formula of The Sidewinder, " though he was in a position to deliver artistically less Jukebox -compliant statements, such as Search for the New Land ". This album, recorded just weeks after his success LP The Sidewinder, first disappeared in the archive and its release was held back two years because of the material was not a funky successor to the surprise hit. It was one of the few productions Morgans, taken from " Groove stressed Patterns of The Sidewinder pattern " deviated. So Morgan explored in the title track of the album with his fellow players, guitarist Grant Green, pianist Herbie Hancock, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Billy Higgins modal improvisation: Matt Leskovic described in literature, the mood of the composition:
Nat Hentoff pointed in the liner notes of the album go to the " pastoral sense of space and the lack of pressure " in the title track; however, the following The Joker was open-minded, even if " there uneilige atmosphere. " here Mr. Kenyatta, the Morgan Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta dedicated, demonstrating with his staccatohaften driving force that Morgan ( zest incisive ) nothing of the " cut stimulus" lost was that his music has always been identified. On the other hand is Melancholee with his " disarming simple theme " a " Summoning of misery. "
Jeff McMillan sees in his Lee Morgan biography of the album title programmatically; it was written at the height of the American civil rights movement and the assassination of John F. Kennedy lay back just a month:
At the time of the recording of the album Lee Morgan was again a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers ( Free for All ) and accepted again until 1965 drives under its own name. His next studio session with Jackie McLean and McCoy Tyner in August 1964, held back by Blue Note as well and appeared only in 1980 under the title Tom Cat.
Title list
- Lee Morgan: Search for the New Land. ( Blue Note BLP 4169/BST 84169, CDP 7 84169-2 )
- All compositions are by Lee Morgan.
Reception
Kenny Mathieson held Search for the New Land for Morgan's best album, even if it has reached its predecessor never the " totemic significance " ( totemic Significance ). The musicians are as relevant experimental set than usual, not only with the connections to hard bop and soul jazz in the person of Grant greens, but with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock in the modal orientations of jazz, as they embodied Miles Davis and John Coltrane, as with Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins in the direction of the New Thing, inspired by Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. The title track is " an exploratory journey through the changing moods and alternation between dark and light, with Shorter's and Morgan's contemplative walk through long solos ". Guitarist Green Community here a more cheerful mood, but Hancock brings the music back to the introspective mood before the final chorus is done. Another outstanding title is Mr. Kenyatta; rounded 'll Album absorbed by two somewhat less attention title, Melancholee and Morgan the Pirate. Only The Joker is the only one of Morgan's compositions of this album, which was constructed in the style of The Sidewinder.
Scott Yanow awarded the album in Allmusic, the maximum rating of five stars and considered it one of the greatest of Lee Morgan. The five compositions by the trumpeter deserved to be " resurrected ". The musicians around Lee Morgan are all in particularly creative form and expand the boundaries of hard bop, the modern mainstream jazz of the period. The result is "a consistently stimulating set that is worth repeated listening ." Matt Leskovic is also of the opinion that Morgan had reached with Search for the New Land the peak of his career, both as regards the extension of the scope of its compositions as well as in the depth of his improvisations.
Richard Cook and Brian Morton draw the album in The Penguin Guide to Jazz with the highest rating of four stars and called it the introduction " the exception. In contrast to Morgan's output after 1962, which fails pretty formulaic, Search was a musical as well as programmatic exploration. " The presence of Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock guarantee " a level of lyrical unpredictability ", which already display directly in the title track. Although The Joker first appears as a title in style by The Sidewinder, this is a " darkly playful, almost deceptive incident ". The obese Mr. Kenyatta show at one of the (then) imaginable developments in Morgan's music, while his Melancholee and Morgan the Pirate " more titles off the shelf". Total is Search for the New Land is an excellent, sought plate, and it was regrettable that - apart from The Gigolo (1965 ) - no longer existed it.