McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy (2020 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series 180g Vinyl LP)

McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy | 180g Vinyl LP - Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series (BST 84264)

Tyner had left Coltrane's quartet in late 1965 as the music moved further into free-form territory. By April 1967, when Alfred Lion booked him into Van Gelder's studio for his Blue Note debut as a leader, Tyner had something to prove. The rhythm section he assembled says everything about his intentions: Elvin Jones, his former colleague from the Coltrane group, on drums, and Ron Carter, who had spent the same years in Miles Davis's quintet, on bass. Joe Henderson, already one of Blue Note's most inventive tenor saxophonists, takes the horn chair. "Passion Dance" opens the album at a tempo that doesn't relent across nearly nine minutes, Tyner's left hand driving modal chords in that rolling, percussive style while Henderson blows hard against the rhythm. "Contemplation" stretches past nine minutes on side A with a more reflective quality, though Jones's drumming keeps even the ballad passages taut. "Four By Five" opens side B in 5/4 time, Henderson and Tyner trading solos over a metre that Jones and Carter navigate without ever making it feel like an exercise. "Search For Peace" is the album's stillest moment, a dedication to world peace played with a tenderness that contrasts with everything around it. "Blues On The Corner" closes with a hard-swinging blues that brings the album back to earth.

This is the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series reissue, the first title in the series, mastered and lacquer cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media in Germany.