Lee Morgan
Search for the New Land

The album by African American hard bop jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan that I am about to review features a cover portrait that serves as the emblem of its content. The photo, taken by the great Francis Wolff with a Rolleiflex F/2.8 in high-contrast black and white, captures Morgan in close-up with an expression that hovers between shy and surprised, while his gaze reflects the resolve of someone about to make a clear and determined declaration of intent.

The historical context is one in which African Americans became fully aware that it was necessary to participate cohesively in activist movements to gain the recognition of their civil rights in a bigoted, hypocritical, racist, and segregationist country like America in the 1960s.

“Search for the New Land” was produced and released by Alfred Lion for Blue Note (BLP 4169) in 1966, although it was recorded on February 15, 1964, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs (NJ).

The album actually followed “Sidewinder” by almost three years, which, with its soul-jazz boogaloo groove, had represented Morgan's greatest commercial success, but especially for Blue Note, at least up until that moment.

At that time, the trumpeter, who had debuted with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers displaying spectacular exuberance in performances, had gained a large public following and received good reviews from music critics, ranking second only to His Majesty Miles Davis. However, right after “Sidewinder,” having written music without much ambition, he had recorded a couple of mediocre albums with very little commercial success, to the point of being forced to participate as a sideman in many sessions just to raise money to cover his daily drug expenses.

From an artistic point of view, this album aimed to surpass the canonical hard bop compositional model, structured on the sequence of melody – solos – melody, completely overturning it with the succession of various melodies accompanied by solos, supported by a rhythm section that serves as a trait d'union, placing the expressive independence of all musicians on an equal footing, allowing them complete freedom to explore the pentatonic scale.

Blue Note itself had encouraged and supported the search for these new stylistic solutions in hard bop, intending them to be reactionary compared to the emerging free jazz movement, but the final result was that the two jazz currents continued in the same direction, leaving behind the classicism based on chord changes and melodies of the “old jazz”.

From a historical context perspective, the album contributes to shifting the theme of classical jazz composition from the simple dedication to the beloved woman or the deceased musician to the exaltation of African nations that had just gained their independence, or to the celebration of the religion and philosophy of Eastern countries as a new ideal model to pursue to achieve social redemption and individual, spiritual, and artistic freedom.

There is also a third key to read this album, much more intimate and personal for the artist who, at 25 years old, as a former enfant prodige and hard bop virtuoso deeply troubled by drug addiction, was searching for a “new land” and thus a new self.

The line-up features Lee Morgan masterfully accompanied by Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone; Grant Green on guitar; Herbie Hancock on piano; Reggie Workman on double bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.

The album contains five takes written by Morgan, all of excellent composition, but above all, capable of highlighting the extraordinary artistic cohesion of the sextet of musicians and their impeccable technical synchronization as an ensemble.

I particularly focus on the title track which, over 15 minutes, showcases the succession of four solos by Shorter, Morgan, Green, and Hancock, while the rhythm section of Workman and Higgins holds the piece together, drawing the listener into an atmosphere of introspection and reflection aiming to encourage the exploration of new worlds still waiting to be discovered.

"Mr. Kenyatta," which opens the second side of the album, is an explicit homage to Jomo Kenyatta, who became the first post-colonial president of Kenya in 1964. It is the social manifesto of the album, following the path already embarked upon by John Coltrane in “India & Africa” and “Ascension,” reconnecting with Ornette Coleman's “Free Jazz.”

I leave it to the listener's curiosity to discover the other magnificent tracks (“The Joker,” “Melancholee,” and “Morgan the Pirate”) of this fundamental album for jazz music.

Morgan's life and music were tragically cut short one February evening in 1972, when in a fit of jealousy Helen Moore, the woman who had saved him from perdition and helped him find himself and regain his lost path to success, confronted him armed with a gun during his performance with his new quintet at Slug's Saloon in the East Village of New York.

Ultimately, the search for a “new land,” whether real or utopian, essentially constitutes the most complete expression of the political, spiritual, and aesthetic freedom that jazz musicians sought to achieve, and all this, after so many years, can still reach us through the music they left us and all that they have inspired.

“There are other worlds (they have not told you about)” Sun Ra.