Songs Of The New World

Jazz Master McCoy Tyner
Select Blue Note And Milestone
Recordings, 1970-1976
Friday, June 03, 2011
For Gil --- My peace go with you

At the time of these recordings McCoy Tyner was still a young man, not yet the elder statesmen that he is today. However he was already well on his way to becoming a veritable jazz master having previously helped shape the very face of modern jazz as we know it. As an integral component of John Coltrane’s seminal quartet (along with Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones), Tyner’s complex chording and explosively percussive piano style assertively pushed aside the conventional to become one of the most recognizable sounds in improvised music. Those rhythmic and harmonic contributions to the idiom have since gone on to become a part of the rich vocabulary of nearly every jazz pianist today, so was the potency of his playing.

While understandably still under the unique and powerful sway of his former band-mate and employer, Tyner used his experience with Coltrane as a mere departure point on these recordings as a bandleader in his own right. While not his first outings under his own name, by the year 1970, Tyner had finally managed to reconcile his past with the present to expand his own vision by incorporating new elements into his musical landscape. Drawn from other cultures and continents, these new ingredients served to bring his music to an even higher level, as if it wasn’t already on a remarkably impressive plane. Like Coltrane’s most demanding but ultimately rewarding explorations, this new music was deeply spiritual in its quest for pure expression, and Tyner delivered with great aplomb and sincerity.

While certainly not for casual listening, these recordings nevertheless radiate a kind of undefinable accessibility that indicate the pianist had managed to pair the appropriate blend of boundary pushing and comprehensibility to create music that would still challenge his core audience without alienating any newcomers. Perhaps a key element in this balance was the keen guidance of producer, Orrin Keepnews who developed a clear understanding of Tyner’s vision by establishing a sensitive and responsive relationship with the pianist after he moved from Blue Note to Milestone Records. The pairing spawned a string of stimulating and enriching releases which still stand today as among Tyner’s very best. And considering that the pianist has nearly 80 full length recordings to his credit, that statement speaks volumes.

Tyner, like Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk (who was recently profiled within these pages) is one of the the most influential jazz pianists of the last 50 years. And again like Monk, his style has not changed greatly over the years. As muscular and forceful as ever, if anything his playing has strengthened even more. Not that he’s milquetoast on these dates. The level of musicianship throughout these performances by virtually all of the participants is nothing short of volatile, thunderous, divine, high voltage, and diamond cut bliss on a caliber of the highest order. Absolutely top drawer, if you know what I mean. Tremendous. Copacetic. Inspiring. Hella deep. Expoobident. The bee’s knees. Can I say it any more emphatically or clearly? To give you an idea, here’s just a partial list of Tyner’s counterparts who contribute to the rapture: Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, Wayne Shorter, Gary Bartz, Alice Coltrane, Buster Williams, Billy Hart, Sonny Fortune, Alphonse Mouzon, Michael White, Charles Tolliver, Mtume, Hubert Laws, Azar Lawrence, Bobby Hutcherson, Billy Cobham, Freddie Waits, Herbie Lewis, Charles Fambrough, Guilherme Franco. Get the picture? Giants, all. First string players. The ‘A’ team. The front line. Etcetera, etcetera. With such a superb team of participants, the power and force that propel these compositions then becomes the collective sound of spirit music, like-minded musicians digging deep in search of clarity and free expression within an established form. Don’t misunderstand. These are not avant-garde free-for-alls devoid of melody or structure. Rather, these performances are more like a very personal book of days --- a journal of one man's quest for enlightenment and communication with a higher being, yet through his artistic prowess, these performances can easily speak to us as well.

Songs Of The New World, Vol.1

1) Celestial Chant
2) Malika
3) Afro Blue
4) Some Day
5) The Wanderer
6) Native Song
7) Valley Of Life
8) Asante


Songs Of The New World, Vol.2

1) The Divine Love
2) Fulfillment
3) Above The Rainbow
4) Message From The Nile
5) Land Of The Lonely
6) Going Home
7) Mode For Dulcimer
8) Little Brother


Songs For The New World, Vol.3

1) His Blessing
2) Once I Loved
3) Indo-Serenade
4) Desert Cry
5) Survival Blues
6) Theme For Nana
7) Atlantis
8) Beyond The Sun

Source material for 'Songs Of The New World, Vols.1-3' come from the following:

Extensions (1970)/Asante (1970)
Song For My Lady (1972)/Sahara (1972)
Song Of The New World (1973)/Atlantis (1974)
Sama Layuca (1974)/Trident (1975)
Fly With The Wind (1976)/Focal Point (1976)