Track Listing

1. Passion Dance
2. Contemplation
3. Four By Five
4. Search For Peace
5. Blues On The Corner

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5920 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
This 1967 quartet was McCoy Tyner's first for Blue Note as a leader, although he had frequently recorded as a sideman for the label--with Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, and Grant Green, among others. One of the last recordings produced by Blue Note founder Alfred Lion, and Tyner's first as a leader since leaving the legendary John Coltrane Quartet two years before, the session has a special quality. There's something of the Blue Note sound to the group's concentrated intensity, perhaps Lion's contribution as well as engineer Rudy Van Gelder's, while Tyner, a more conservative musician than Coltrane, was integrating the modal and expressionist forms of the Coltrane quartet into more tightly defined compositional patterns. In tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, Tyner found a true peer, another musician with a strong identity whose style represented a similar amalgam of conventional and innovative elements. Together with drummer Elvin Jones, and bassist Ron Carter, they both reassert the hard-bop mainstream with "Four by Five" and the deep blues of "Blues on the Corner" and extend it with the heightened solemnity of "Search for Peace" and the brilliant rhythmic interplay of "Passion Dance." --Stuart Broomer

Album Description
McCoy Tyner forged his sound as a leader on the amazing session with Joe Henderson, Ron Carter and Coltrane bandmate Elvin Jones. All five distinctive compositions have become jazz standards. A perfect record and an essential one too.

Customer Reviews

Coltrane without the Coltrane
Let me start at the end: I love this CD and I think every jazz enthusiast would enjoy it. The long and short of it is, you've got the same band that made John Coltrane famous by backing him for many, many years, helping him to build a reputation that survives to this day, and for the members of this band, giving them an opportunity to stretch out and grow after the Coltrane band called it quits. This CD is one of the fruits of that relationship. Tyner keeps the quartet together, with the more-than-respectable Joe Henderson taking over the sax. What you end up with is some solid jazz that, while it lacks the Coltrane punch, also lacks the Coltrane esoterica and mindless wanderings he became known for at the advent of the avant-garde era. For me, this is better, because, as much as I like Coltrane, I like Tyner more and I appreciate that McCoy has more of an opportunity to shine and show what he is really made of. Ron Carter and Elvin Jones lend their usual steady, relentless, swinging rhythm to the five tracks, including the classic standards Passion Dance and Four by Five. And as I've already said, Henderson does a more than admirable job with the sax, bopping right along and sizzling when it's his turn to sizzle. So, this CD is a high recommendation for anyone who likes Tyner, Coltrane, jazz piano, or classic quartet jazz. Go for it, you won't regret it!

A True Classic with Exceptional Playing
The first time I listened to this album was in the seventies. It blew me away. The next time was after ordering the CD from Amazon. It is better than I remember.

Required Listening
I've got three names for you: McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and Ron Carter. Just going by those names alone, you already know this is required listening, especially if you're a fan of early 60's Coltrane. What we have here is the two members of Coltrane's quartet that did not continue into his avant-garde reordings - McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones. They were replaced by Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali, respectively. Add Ron Carter and Joe Henderson on tenor sax, and we have some of the most technical modal acoustic jazz this side of "Giant Steps".

While Henderson is a few giant steps below Trane on the talent-scale (who isn't?), this is a McCoy Tyner record, and the main focus is his signature piano playing, circa "Live at Birdland". Carter and Jones are on fire throughout polyrhythmic barn-burners like "Passion Dance" and "Four By Five". The music was by no means 'ground-breaking' in the context of the time in which it was recorded. On the other hand, it's 60's modal jazz at its best. Tyner and the boys also show their versatility in being able to lay back on smoother tracks like "Search For Peace" and "Contemplation". I also prefer Ron Carter to Jimmy Garrison and find him to be a much more observant match for Jones's wild drum skills. This is definitely a must-have for Coltrane fans.

This was the first of a handful of Blue Note recordings by Tyner, but I consider this to be his finest hour. Another impressive release during the same time period was 1970's "Extensions", also on Blue Note, featuring Tyner, Alice Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Gary Bartz (alto sax), Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones.