Mojo - The Music Magazine

In music, as in life, timing is everything. After taking a good deal of the previous two years off to recuperate from the 'lifestyle' problems he had developed, Lee Morgan returned to the recording studio at the end of 1963 with a vengeance. That December he assembled a talented quintet to record the new tunes he had been working on, and just two months later Morgan was back in front of the mics with a superb sextet, working on some of the most inventive material he had ever written.

But when the December sessions were released shortly afterwards as The Sidewinder LP, and the surprised Morgan found himself with a hugely popular and lucrative chart hit in the form of the soulful, boogaloo-laden title track, priorities and release dates quickly changed. In between tours with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the trumpeter's next few albums (such as The Rumproller and The Gigolo) would generally follow the template set by The Sidewinder's success, and the February '64 tapes were left gathering dust on Blue Note's shelves until 1966, when they were finally released as Search For The New Land. (It could have been worse - another terrific Morgan sextet from August '64 had its sessions shelved for 15 years, before finally seeing the light of day as the Tom Cat album.)

But far from the misstep its shelving suggests, Search For The New Land remains arguably the most daring and focused studio album of Morgan's entire career. The trumpeter wrote every track here, and it is immediately obvious how attuned Morgan had become to the diverse styles infusing jazz towards the mid-'60s. Mr. Kenyatta has its roots in hard bop, but the calmer, measured tempo and controlled blowing by Morgan and Wayne Shorter on tenor sax are more than a little informed by the waxing modal jazz trend. Grant Green's guitar work is a revelation, his warm and precise notes providing a proto-fusion sound that is both distinctive and immensely catchy. The gorgeous ballad Melancholee sees Shorter and pianist Herbie Hancock blend their love of avant-garde jazz space with the slow-blues base of the tune to stunning effect. Even the more mainstream hard bop tracks like The Joker and Morgan The Pirate are lifted above the norm by the inspired soloing from the horns, the intuitive rhythm section of Hancock, Reggie Workman and Billy Higgins, and the sheer quality of the compositions, which lend themselves not only to exquisite solo performances but some inspired group harmonies and melodic refrains.

The title track is the crowning glory, a 15-minute tour-de-force beginning with a gentle blend of ivories, cymbals and trembling guitar notes, over which the horns play a stunningly emotive melody. As the introductory theme fades, the bass, piano and drums pick a smooth but determined groove over which Shorter, Morgan, Green and finally Hancock each make their statements before returning to the original theme, retelling it in their own inimitable styles, before a final group effort brings the journey to a striking end. Impossible to adequately describe, the song is like a tremendous wordless poem, hinting at places and emotions familiar to us all - the dream of a faraway exotic land, or perhaps just a quiet corner of our own minds. May the search go on forever.