Search - McCoy Tyner :: Live at Sweet Basil

McCoy Tyner has probably recorded as many albums as anyone in jazz over the past 30 years, but very few of those releases capture him in his usual nightclub format: the piano trio. That's a shame, for Tyner has spent more time in this configuration than any other and has reshaped it to his own distinctive style of playing. Now, at long last, we have a worthy document of the McCoy Tyner Trio in action, "Live at Sweet Basil," a 2 CD, 92-minute set recorded at the Manhattan club in '89 and only now released in the U.S. Tyner is the most percussive pianist this side of Cecil Taylor. With his powerful left hand and his heavy foot on the sustain pedal, Tyner thickens the usual triads with unexpected notes and accents. His two-fisted attack on the keyboard enables him to build harmonies of orchestral proportions, and that imposing architecture is best appreciated in the relatively open landscape of the piano trio. Tyner establishes propulsive tempos himself, but he often hands them off to drummer Aaron Scott and longtime bassist Avery Sharpe while the pianist jumps off on a harmonic tangent. Scott is sometimes excessive with the cymbals, but Sharpe's playing boasts a combination of muscle and imagination that mirrors the leader's. The album includes two compositions by Tyner's old employer, John Coltrane, as well as two apiece by Tyner himself and by his original inspiration, Thelonious Monk. Two ballad standards are treated as unaccompanied piano solos, and several other tunes begin with similar solos. --Geoffrey Himes