Lee Morgan – Search For The New Land

Love Love Love the music
Hate Hate Hate this pressing
Clicks and pops throughout
I too got a great deal so I’ll live with it and hope for an SACD or new pressing in the future.

This is a deeply profound album and must have for any Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter fan! The way they play together is so smooth, expressive and precise! The Morgan, Shorter, and Green solos sound like butter - so rich and smooth. The rhythm section is top notch, too. HH inserts the right harmonies and rhythms that allow this music to breathe and soar to “the New Land.” Amazing balance in this stereo sound. I hope to get the mono version someday to compare.

An excellent pressing by Optimal with a great sound. Flat, no pops and many details to hear.

Flat & slient all round. Only thing I don't love is Lee Morgan's trumpet on the left channel seems too far back in the stage. Still sounds good, but the imbalance means, e.g. Morgan's trumpet doesn't feel to have the same dynamics and punch as Shorter's sax.

An almost perfect album, which with the title track can be carved into the stone of jazz. Lee matured into a versatile artist who, had it not been for his untimely death, could have created even more great works. All the musicians on the album submitted everything to the result. If I hadn't read the name Shorter on the back, I wouldn't have believed it. But great musicians also record great things like this...Although even simple motifs can be perfect when interpreted like here. My copy is probably a reprint. It does not contain a voucher or a sticker on the packaging. The sound is good, cut at lower volumes with good instrument separation - Morgan more left outside the speakers, Green more left center, Hancock and Workman center back, Shorter right front and Higgins right center and back. Nice clarity of the instruments and typically " blue note smoky" piano. Just a shame it comes from the worst pressing plant in orbit. And that is of course GZ. Edit June 2025: I couldn't get enough of it and did some research. The smell of the vinyl, the paper and the design don't match what GZ did in this reissue series in the past. Some details in the inner sleeve are also missing. The rest of it is almost the same. I found out that the vinyl comes from Canada - Precision Record Pressing with an almost identical barcode as GZ. It was probably released as a repress in 2023 or 2024, which would deserve a separate version.

Massive edge warp in the one I picked up new today. The stylus gets air multiple times on the first track of both sides. Store price sticker had 4/2024 date, so likely from the same bad batch as all the others here.

Sadly my copy is otherwise flawless and sounds fantastic.

Excellent pressing, sounds incredible. I don't have an OG, but if that sounds better than this it must be insanely good.

Just an amazing record, this mono version has all you expect from a Blue Note mono OG, you pay a lot, you get a lot.

My new copy has noticeable surface noise and ticks after an ultrasonic cleaning. Like others have noted, the beginning of both sides are noisy and plays better in the middle and ending parts. Got it for a great deal directly from Blue Note on their Black Friday sale for 20% off so I can’t complain too much though. Amazing session work here. If you want a completely silent record I would look elsewhere for this one.

The 45 rpm MM re-issues are seriously the best sounding re-issues. Especially the earlier ones where Steve Hoffman was also involved.