Lee Morgan: Search For The New Land (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series edition comes on 180g vinyl, cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analog tapes. The album reached No. 16 on Billboard's R&B LP chart, and Scott Yanow called it one of the finest Lee Morgan records.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

Some records are worth the wait, and Blue Note made everybody wait for this one. Lee Morgan cut Search for the New Land at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs on February 15, 1964, before The Sidewinder had even reached the shops, and then the label sat on the tapes for two years before issuing it in 1966.

The band is a Blue Note dream team: Wayne Shorter on tenor, Herbie Hancock on piano, Grant Green on guitar, Reggie Workman on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Morgan wrote all five tunes, and the title track takes its time, nearly sixteen minutes of open, searching modal jazz that lets every soloist stretch out. "The Joker" lightens the mood with a bouncy swing, "Mr. Kenyatta" digs in hard, "Melancholee" is a gorgeous slow burn and "Morgan the Pirate" swaggers out to close. Alfred Lion produced, Reid Miles designed the cover and Francis Wolff took the photo.

It also crossed over to No. 143 on the Top LPs chart, a fine showing for a record with a sixteen-minute opener. Blue Note kept it on the shelf for two years; we'd suggest a shorter stay on yours, roughly forty-two minutes at a time.

Also at Kops: more Lee Morgan on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 5831994), a reissue of the 1966 album.