Jazz Archives

Quite a few leaders of small jazz groups at some point got the itch to arrange music for large ensembles. McCoy Tyner scratched his for the first time on this 1973 recording. While I don't rank it among my favorite Tyner albums, I do think that it is very good, and I would say that it is the best of his several like-minded projects.
Tyner used two large groups, one of horns and reeds and the other mostly strings. The strings perform on "The Divine Love" and the title track, while Tyner is backed by the horns and reeds on the other three tunes. Tyner continued to be confident enough in his personal style to revisit some old territory, as this album is the third in a row to feature a piece that was a regular in the sets of John Coltrane's quartet during Tyner's tenure; here, it's the Mongo Santamaria standard "Afro Blue."
The only real issue to discuss here is Tyner's success with the bigger groups, as the material is fine and Tyner and his rhythm section are in top form. My verdict is this: on only one track — the delicate "The Divine Love" — are the extra musicians integrated with the music to the extent that they're necessary.
On all of the other pieces, they really just provide bulk to the beginnings and endings of the tunes. A potential problem is that, since the album was recorded, school marching bands and 1970s television theme songs have become so closely identified with this kind of music that the contemporary listener may be hard pressed to effortlessly receive the grandiosity and power that Tyner surely wanted these recordings to exude. Despite these issues, though, the majority of the album is just Tyner, his rhythm section and another soloist — and in that format, the music is as timeless ever.

:::Review by Matt P.:::

McCoy Tyner - Song Of The New World (1973)

1. Afro Blue 9:58
2. Little Brother 10:13
3. The Divine Love 7:28
4. Some Day 6:49
5. Song Of The New World 6:50

Credits
McCoy Tyner (piano); Sonny Fortune (soprano & alto saxophones, flute); Virgil Jones, Cecil Bridgewater, Jon Faddis (trumpet); Dick Griffin (trombone, bass trombone); Garnett Brown (trombone); Kiani Zawadi (euphonium); Julius Watkins, Willie Ruff, William Warnick III (French horn); Bob Stewart (tuba); Hubert Laws (piccolo, flute); Harry Smyles (oboe); Selwart Clarke, John Blair, Sanford Allen, Winston Collymore, Noel DaCosta, Marie Hence (violin); Julian Barber, Alfred Brown (viola); Ronald Lipscomb (cello); Jooney Booth (bass); Alphonse Mouzon (drums); Sonny Morgan (congas).

Larry Coryell stands on equal footing with John McLaughlin as one of the premier jazz fusion guitarist and this probably represents his finest achievement. Many people consider his earlier work with McLaughlin, 'Spaces' as writing the textbook for fusion style guitarwork, but to me, this is his greatest overall musical achievement. Comparisons to the original Mahavishnu Orchestra may seem to be inevitable considering the power and attack of the band's performance, but stylistically, the band plays much closer to the fusion/funk style of Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. Their is not as much of an eastern influence as the Mahavishnu Orchestra and there seems to be a wider variety of tempo and stylistic diversity on this recording. The synthesizer runs and Randy Brecker's trumpet keep pace rather well with Coryell's intensity and the compositional framework is elaborate and melodically sophisticated. But the highlight, of course, is the blitzkrieg of notes being pummelled out of Coryell's guitar mostly trading with synthesizer and trumpet, intermingled with more mid tempo improvisations; but the dynamics and interaction feature not just beautifully intricate work, but ingenious melodic and harmonic scales befitting musicians of the highest technical accomplishment. This is probably the most technically perfect fusion recording I have ever heard; a joyous and awesome performance!

:::Review by wooty:::

Larry Coryell - Introducing The Eleventh House (1974)

1. Birdfingers ( 3:07 )
2. The Funky Waltz ( 5:10 )
3. Low Lee Tah ( 4:17 )
4. Adam Smasher ( 4:30 )
5. Joy Ride ( 6:08 )
6. Yin ( 6:03 )
7. Theme For A Dream ( 3:26 )
8. Gratitude ( 3:21 )
9. Ism-ejercicio ( 3:59 )
10. Right On Yàll ( 4:21 )

Credits
- Larry Coryell / guitar
- Randy Brecker / trumpet
- Mike Mandel / keyboards
- Danny Trifan / bass
- Alphonse Mouzon / drums

After the death of John Coltrane, his longtime pianist McCoy Tyner was in something of a musical quandary. Keeping up with his mentor through the incredible explorations of the early '60s, he seemed to have some difficulty navigating the even further out territories explored in the two or three years before Coltrane's death in 1967. His subsequent albums as a leader were solid, enjoyable efforts but seemed oddly retrograde, as though he needed time to settle back and re-digest the information handed down to him. With Sahara, Tyner found the precise perfect "middle ground" on which to stand, more structured than late Coltrane, but exploding with a ferocity and freedom of sound that made it simply one of the greatest jazz recordings of the decade. None of the other members of his quartet ever sounded so inspired, so liberated as they do here. Sonny Fortune threatens to tear the roof off the joint on more than one occasion, Calvin Hill is more than rock-solid on bass, his roots arcing deeply into the earth, and as for Alphonse Mouzon, well, no one familiar with his later vapid meanderings in fusion would begin to recognize him here, so incendiary is his playing. And Tyner develops so much pure energy, channeled with such pinpoint precision, that one worries about the physical stability of any piano under such an assault. From the extraordinarily intense "Ebony Queen" through the ruminative solo "A Prayer for My Family, the equally intense "Rebirth," and the concluding, side-long title track, there's not a misstep to be heard. "Sahara," over the course of its 23 minutes, covers vast ground, echoing the majesty and misery of the geographical area with percussion and flute interludes to some of Tyner's very best playing on record. Even something that could have resulted in a mere exercise in exotica, his koto performance on "Valley of Life," exudes both charm and commitment to the form. Tyner would go on to create several fine albums in the mid-'70s, but never again would he scale quite these heights. Sahara is an astonishingly good record and belongs in every jazz fan's collection.

1. Ebony Queen (8:58)

2. A Prayer For My Family (4:45)

3. Valley Of Life (5:17)

4. Rebirth (5:19)

5. Sahara (23:28)

Bass, Percussion, Reeds - Calvin Hill

Drums, Percussion, Trumpet, Reeds - Alphonse Mouzon

Engineer - Elvin Campbell

Mastered By - Ray Hagerty

Piano, Koto, Flute, Percussion - McCoy Tyner

Producer - Orrin Keepnews

Saxophone [Soprano, Alto], Flute - Sonny Fortune