Lee Morgan - Search for the New Land
My friend for over a decade, Danny Wheeler, once came to my apartment in Berkeley years ago with this Lee Morgan album. He comes in and sits down and tells me to put this on immediately. We played the 16 minute song without talking to each other. The song finishes and he asks me what I thought about it. I talked about the musicality of it and referenced other songs of that era and he did me a favor and appeased my lack of imagination and proceeded to provide an amazing interpretation. He talked about the song title first, "Search for a New Land," as it related to the intro and outro of the song; explaining that it sounds like the end of movie or an epic. If you listen closely, the beginning of the song sounds like a song just ended not a new one beginning. Hence, Morgan's intro emphasizes the end of an era, moment, or experience and the importance endings have when beginning a new journey. To embark on something new, something old (whether liberating or confining) usually is the catalyst for change. This is why the introduction arrangement is strategically placed throughout the entire song. It signifies a change in the narrative.
I've always referenced this song and that conversation to different experiences I've been through. Without words this song reveals an inevitable truth that fleeting moments, unfortunate experiences, fallouts, overstayed welcomes, or life transitions can be melancholy but there is nothing we can do about change. It will come and when we must search for the new land metaphorically (or even figuratively given the state of our planet), welcome it or you will remain in the purgatory of antiquity.
