McCoy Tyner
Inception - The real McCoy

In compliance with the desire to experiment with new things, which cannot be missing even on DeBaser and opposed to the inauguration of the "stereo" review which involves two pages for the same album, we now inaugurate the "differential-biinjective" review, which involves two albums by the same artist on just one page!!!

We are still talking about a well-defined period of Mc Coy Tyner's artistic life, that is the early sixties, in which he was in fact one of the structural pillars of John Coltrane's quartet and was perhaps its most distinctive element with his absolutely personal style: afro-percussive, modal-logorrheic-coherent but... disruptive!
Elvin Jones in that group laid down the law and set trends on the drums and timing management, revealing himself as a new and essential milestone of 'modern drumming' for many fellow drummers; Jimmy Garrison bore the weight of keeping the whole band together on his solid and steadfast shoulders. We won't even talk about Coltrane, otherwise, we won't ever finish.

Of course, for an intelligent, inventive artist, full of ideas, notes, and rhythm to share with the world, a personal outlet parallel and alternative to the Coltrane quartet (or quintet if their friend Dolphy was around etc.) was needed. Mc Coy Tyner recorded a notable amount of albums, experimenting with various formations and showcasing mastery in various languages. These always included explicit references to Africanity. In the trio album "Inception" (1962) we find Elvin Jones and Art Davis supporting the piano; evidently, copious water passed from 'Nights of ballads and blues' or 'Today and tomorrow' and the style, from a perfect entertainer with flair, now often veers, in pieces closer to the 'new thing' offering perilous darts of notes to follow or anticipate the tempo changes, to stringing together phrases on phrases thrown on the same mono-tone drone, perhaps on a small theme taken only as a pretext to play but instead of turning out boring (which is a risk, evidently) drills into your brain and makes your legs dance. Unique and unrepeatable, Mc Coy Tyner.

The six pieces:
1) 'Inception' is the track that gives the album its title and is a nice deconstructed blues that immediately starts a journey full of swing; it unfolds through phrases that definitely begin to detach from current clichés.
2) 'There’s no greater love' is rendered in a melodic and supported manner; counterpoints and dialogues almost chamber-like between piano and double bass on a marked drum rhythm, for relief to the ears after the initial inflicted wound.
3) 'Blues for Gwen' is still a chase between piano and double bass for the theme's exposition; a fairly traditional blues that serves as a framework for incredible speed scales.
4) 'Sunset' constitutes a strange moment on the album: it opens with a bow and 'stolen' time to present the theme; immediately afterward, it enters medium tempo for a ballad where it feels like hearing Horace Silver and his characteristic keyboard inventions. Atypical but intelligent.
5) 'Effendi' is a very lightweight composition that unfolds over few chords, maintained long as a board for the pianist's notable modal exhibition. It seems heavily drawn from one of Trane's records, in terms of setup and development. Nice solo of double bass and 'four and four' with the drums.
6) 'Speak low' is rendered at a speed impossible to execute for mere mortals. Breath-taking. A beautiful and absolutely representative album of mid Mc Coy Tyner's style.

In the second album in quartet "The real Mc Coy" (1967), Ron Carter is now on bass and on sax, for a style comparison between titans, there's Joe Henderson. The five pieces:
1) 'Passion dance' here one can see that five years have passed since Inception and the 'rhythmic-melodic-social' demands require a more radical and new approach compared to tradition. Henderson appears at the start, in the exposition of an African-like theme and then for the solo. However, it stays to a large extent on a single chord that turns out to be obsessive and unsettling but indispensable. The only way to understand where the cycle begins is when the left hand or the drummer marks "the one". Hypnotic and wonderful dance. Mc Coy Tyner style at 100%, now.
2) 'Contemplation' a slower track, for a Naima-like mood, where Henderson weaves discourses that, though influenced by the pervasive 'Traneism', qualify him as an original giant of the saxophone of all time. Mc Coy Tyner pushes boundaries, stepping now outside now inside the melody. The time, however, remains unyielding.
3) 'Four by five' is a rhythmic jest with an initial march that preludes a high-speed exhibition that should be relished well-tied to the chair, so as not to jump and bang one's head against the ceiling! Not to be listened to while driving a vehicle.
4) 'Search for peace' delightful intimate and slow dimension, suffused with scattered notes where the theme is the dominant element.
5) 'Blues on the corner' final drawn-out and fiery jam in the best tradition. It reveals the true origins of jazz and the exact point of union between blues and jazz, all seasoned with chords and cascades of notes that overlap and chase the tempo or precede it. To keep up with someone like this, it takes only a band of physically solid and mentally stable members. To fully enjoy this music, one needs to have the gates of the jazz department near the amygdala opened.

In essence, in the vast discography that constitutes the 'body of work' of Mc Coy Tyner, as a leader or sidekick, these two albums are among the most representative of his style, and perhaps the closest to the disruptive spirit of Parker, then Coltrane, that nonetheless imbued all the hard boppers of the '60s somewhat.

Both highly recommended!!!