NORMAL SERVICE WILL RESUME....

The return to university is taking its toll on my free time, unfortunately.  As such, my Enraptured updates will be somewhat less frequent in the coming months, but this is not the end!  I'll still try to come out with dubious ramblings whenever I can, and normal service will be resumed once I am no longer slogging my guts out over piles of textbooks.  My thanks for your indulgence.

(I was going to add a humorous cartoon of a stressed-out student to this post, but the blogger platform is being....difficult.  That is all.)

THE REAL MCCOY by McCoy Tyner

It can easily be argued that the advent of punk in the late 1970s shifted the emphasis from what musicians were playing to how they were playing it.  An obsession with the former proved the artistic downfall of the so-called progressive rock movement, but it's also an accusation that can also be levelled at many jazz musicians of the '60s.  Endless bars of passionless, clinical playing were the bane of a musical form which had only recently received a much-needed injection of innovation and verve from the likes of Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis and John Coltrane.  Despite the intervention of these revolutionary godfathers, however, jazz was sometimes in danger of losing itself in the technical what of music, rather than the passionate how.  Not so McCoy Tyner, Coltrane's former pianist and an accomplished player, composer and performer in his own right.

Tyner never lost sight of the how, as evidenced by the track Contemplation, from his 1967 album The Real McCoy.  The track's brooding atmosphere and seductive groove immediately drag the listener into a private, ethereal world of Tyner's own creation. but the magic really happens at approximately 4 minutes and 46 seconds in, when Tyner spends 8 bars hammering a single piano chord in his inimitable, percussive style.  The effect is stunning; in the midst of his solo, Tyner breaks off from his dexterous yet melodic tinkling to create an almost unbearable tension which keeps the listener spellbound - all with a single chord!  This is a pure expression of the power of how in music, a whole decade before punk's seismic impact. 

The rest of the album is also a testament to music with feeling, with the appropriately named Passion Dance unleashing a joyous cascade of notes powered by sheer emotion, and the tranquil Search For Peace showcasing all the very best elements of jazz balladry.  It's also wonderful to hear Tyner reunited with virtuoso drummer Elvin Jones, after their long tenure together in Coltrane's legendary quartet.  Tyner's massive chords and Jones' percussive tapestry combine - as usual - to forge a titanic sound which seems too overpowering to be the work of a single rhythm section, and fortunately this would not be their last record together.  Tyner has recorded (and continues to record) many great albums over the course of his long career, but The Real McCoy is arguably his best. and a good starting place for non-jazzers, to boot.  This is music to move you, music with passion in its DNA.  Music which is less about the what than the how.