McCoy Tyner Trio feat. Bill Frisell & Gary Bartz - International Music ...

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Reading Eagle: Ben HastyJazz legend McCoy Tyner in the Miller Center for the Arts in Reading on Saturday nightas part of the Berks Jazz Fest.CONCERT REVIEW: McCoy Tyner brings turbulence, drama to Berks JazzFestBy John FidlerReading Eagle4/4/2009Berks County, PA - When pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones quit the JohnColtrane quartet in the mid-1960s, jazz critic Ben Ratliff has written, they were unable tohear themselves in the monsoon of sound.Tyner came full circle in Reading on Saturday night as he and his quartet, with guitaristDerek Trucks sitting in, created their own dramatic turbulence in the Miller Center for theArts. Their set was one of the last in the 19th annual VF Outlet Berks Jazz Fest, whichwraps up today.It is hard to avoid using the word legendary to describe Tyner (the last surviving memberof the great Coltrane foursome), and his contributions to jazz, but he is much more than alegend. His most recent album, "Guitars," features Trucks and three other guitarists andbanjoist Bela Fleck. At 70, Tyner is still exploring new worlds.In one of those worlds, "Fly with the Wind," from 1976, and the opening numberSaturday night, Tyner staked his territory with his signature volcanic left hand and oceanwaves of chords in his right.
Saxophonist Gary Bartz, with his corona of white hair, joined the fray with meteoric runs,stop and start bursts and a rolling thunder that bordered on caterwauling. But howbeautiful the caterwauling was.Tyner leaves plenty of room for his bandmates to solo, and in almost every tune, bassistGerald Cannon and drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt had their turns. Their playing,insistent, urgent, impatient, left the germ of the tune behind, rendering it beside the point.The effect was of a sonic locomotive hurtling down the tracks. Woe betide the haplesslistener who got in its way.Coltrane’s "Moment’s Notice," from his seminal 1957 album "Blue Train," followed.Bartz rocketed into the stratosphere, Cannon’s bass became more than foundation andGravatt’s drumming matched Tyner’s booming block chords and thundering right-handoctaves in its searing precision.The band slowly left the stage, and in what should have been an oasis of peace as Tynersat alone in the spotlight, an annoying hiss of feedback (a microphone left on, perhaps?)was so distracting that a listener had to fight desperately to hear the surging passionwithin the ruminative chords and the brief nod to stride piano. Problems with soundsystems have long plagued the Berks Jazz Fest. A fly buzzing around the keyboardseemed to save the number as Tyner assured the crowd, "He’s in the union!"The remaining four numbers in the set seemed to have gone without titles. I askedCannon for a set list as he packed his upright bass and he shrugged his shoulders."We forget them as soon as we play them," he said, smiling. Just as well.But a contemplative reverie formed under that soft light. Tyner referred to his wife andsaid "There’s always tomorrow." The piece unfurled gradually, mustering its own quietpropulsion and landed somewhere between contemplation and elegy.Bartz seemed to search for something elusive in his solo, exploring the center of the song,relishing the melody’s core. Tyner’s right-hand octaves left that core behind, if onlybriefly, and they dissolved back to the center of the keyboard of his Steinway concertgrand.When Trucks came onstage, the evening changed. His slide guitar evoked the greatDuane Allman, for whom Trucks’ uncle, Butch Trucks, played drums in the 1970s.Trucks and Bartz were conjoined twins as they traded eighth notes in what had the feel ofa cutting contest.Tyner’s playing at 70 remains as explosive, as nuanced and, at the right moments, astender as it was when he, Coltrane, Jones and bassist Jimmy Garrison ravaged the jazzlandscape in the early 1960s.
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McCoy Tyner Trio feat. Bill Frisell & Gary Bartz - International Music ...

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