McCoy Tyner Trio - Inception (1973 Japanese Impulse! Vinyl LP)

McCoy Tyner Trio - Inception | Vinyl LP - 1973 Japanese Impulse! Reissue (IMP-88059, Toshiba)

By January 1962, Tyner had been in Coltrane's quartet for less than a year, but Impulse! producer Bob Thiele already saw his potential as a leader. The trio Tyner assembled drew directly from the Coltrane circle. Art Davis had recorded with Coltrane (including the two-bass sessions) and was a formidably skilled musician equally at home in classical and jazz settings. Elvin Jones was, of course, Coltrane's drummer and Tyner's bandmate. That familiarity gives the session its focused clarity. "Inception," the title track, is an extended minor blues that grabs attention from its opening melody, building through a dynamic Tyner solo into whole-tone figures traded with Jones. "There Is No Greater Love," a long-time Tyner favourite, gets a jaunty, relaxed treatment. "Blues for Gwen" is named for Tyner's sister. "Sunset," a reflective ballad, was titled by Tyner's wife Aisha, who felt the piece brought to mind an impression of nature.

Side B opens with "Sunset" before "Effendi," the album's most enduring original, which became something of a modern jazz standard. "Speak Low," the Kurt Weill/Ogden Nash standard, closes the album with some Latin figures lending an air of intrigue, and highlights the symbiosis between Tyner and Jones. What you hear across the record is a young pianist already thinking carefully about arrangement and pacing rather than just running a blowing session, though the quartal harmonies and open-fifth drones that would define his mature style are only beginning to emerge. Tyner would follow this trio formula through his next several Impulse! releases (Reaching Fourth, Nights of Ballads and Blues, Plays Ellington), all regarded as among the finest examples of the piano trio format. Asked to describe Tyner's playing, Coltrane chose one word: beauty.

This is the 1973 Japanese pressing on Impulse! IMP-88059 (originally AS-18), manufactured by Toshiba.