Lee Morgan – Search for the New Land (UHQCD)

Two months after recording his hit album “The Sidewinder”, trumpeter Lee Morgan returned to Van Gelder Studio in February 1964 to record his masterpiece “Search For The New Land”. For this session, Morgan assembled a sextet consisting of several young stars from Blue Note, including Herbie Hancock on piano, Grant Green on guitar and Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, as well as the dynamic rhythm team of bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Billy Higgins. The album opens with the 16-minute title track, a musical odyssey that alternates a shimmering rubato theme with a galloping exploration by each soloist. This is followed by four more unforgettable originals by Morgan, including “The Joker” and “Morgan The Pirate”, as well as the movingly plaintive ballad “Melancholee”.

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series” Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for Blue Note US’s analog reissues such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited Japan only UHQCD with OBI stripe. The original recording session for “Search For The New Land” took place on February 15, 1964 at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan’s first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.

Lista pieselor

UHQCD

1. Search For The New Land

2. The Joker

3. Mr. Kenyatta

4. Melancholee

5. Morgan The Pirate