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).

This is the second of two performances from February 1975 at the Osaka Festival Hall in Japan. This is the evening show; the Columbia release Agharta was the afternoon show. Pangaea is comprised either as a double LP or double CD of two tracks, "Zimbabwe" and "Gondwana." Each is divided into two parts. The band here is comprised of Sonny Fortune on saxophones, Pete Cosey (who also played synth) and Reggie Lucas on guitars, Michael Henderson on bass, Al Foster on drums, James Mtume on percussion, and Davis on trumpet and organ. The band, no doubt inspired by their amazing performance earlier in the day, comes out swinging, and I mean like Muhammad Ali, not Benny Goodman. This is a take-no-prisoners set. Davis seems to be pushing an agenda of "What the hell is melody and harmony? And bring on the funk -- and while you're at it, Pete, play the hell outta that guitar. More drums!" If there is anything that's consistent in this free-for-all, as everybody interacts with everyone else in an almighty dirty groove & roll while improv is at an all-time high, it's the rhythmic, or should we emphasize "polyrhythmic," invention. Mtume and Foster are monstrous in moving this murky jam session along ("Zimbabwe" is one set, and "Gondwana" is the second of the evening) some surreal lines. When Cosey's not ripping the pickups out of his guitar, he's adding his hands to various percussion instruments in the pursuit of the all-powerful Miles Davis' inflected voodoo funk. And while it's true that this set is as relentless as the Agharta issue, it's not quite as successful, though it's plenty satisfying. The reason is simple: the dynamic and dramatic tensions of the afternoon session could never have been replicated, they were based on all conditions being right. Here, while the moods and textures are carried and the flow is quite free, the dramatic tension is not as present; the mood is not quite so dark. And while the playing of certain individuals here may be better than it is on Agharta, the band's playing isn't quite at that level. That said, this is still an essential Miles Davis live record and will melt your mind just as easily as Agharta. People would complain on this tour that Davis played with his back to the audience a lot -- Lester Bangs went so far as to say he hated his guts for it. But if you were this focused on creating a noise so hideously beautiful from thin air, you might not have time to socialize either.

:::Review by Thom Jurek:::

Miles Davis – Pangaea (1975)

Disc One

1. Zimbabwe - 41:48

Disc Two

1. Gondwana - 46:50

Credits
Bass [Fender] - Michael Henderson
Congas, Percussion, Drums [Water], Performer [Rhythm Box] - Mtume
Directed By [Album & Cd] - Keiichi Nakamura
Drums - Al Foster
Engineer [Assistant] - Mitsuru Kasai , Shuichi Takamoto , Takaaki Amano
Engineer, Engineer [Cd Remix] - Tomoo Suzuki
Guitar - Reggie Lucas
Guitar, Synthesizer, Percussion - Pete Cosey
Other [Contemporary Jazz Masters Coordination] - Amy Herot , Gary Pacheco , Mike Berniker
Other [Liner Notes] - Kevin Whitehead
Other [Package Coordination] - Tony Tiller
Producer [Album] - Teo Macero
Saxophone [Soprano, Alto], Flute - Sonny Fortune
Trumpet, Organ - Miles Davis