j o e

Thankfully these seem to be fewer nowadays, but in the past, whenever I would read a rabid posting on the Web written by someone transfixed at the unsurpassable technical prowess of Rick Wakeman, the first thought that would jump into my head was: "McCoy Tyner: Ebony Queen." The next would be, "Go home, little boy, it's past your bedtime." Before you insist on playing your virtuosity card, it's best to know what else there might be lurking in the full deck. Of course, there are scores of other musicians or song examples that anybody with half a clue beyond prog rock could insert as well besides McCoy Tyner. I'm not entirely sure why I think of "Ebony Queen" first, but I do know that I'll never forget the first time I brought Sahara home, one of my first Tyner albums, and pressed the play button. To be hit with "Ebony Queen" — with an entirely acoustic jazz band that was rocking out harder and heavier than most regular rock bands you hear with electric instruments — truly left an indelible impression. When I got to the middle, Tyner's solo, propelled and almost egged on by Alphonse Mouzon's volatile drumwork, shook my innards much in the same way a tornado rips a house in half like it is paper. It was not just the lightning-fast right hand flurries, which even if that were all he was doing would still be more technically daunting than any Wakeman solo, but on top of that Tyner's even more impressive swiftness with forming and placing complex left-hand chords. Put these two elements together, and piano player fans like me are faced with the ultimate dichotomous listening task. There's one moment in particular [6:42-6:58]...I shudder to even think of what that looks like transcribed. But the rest of Sahara is not to be overlooked either, and from listening to the music Tyner made at this point in his career, the most prized cards for his music were expressiveness and exploration, not virtuosity. In contrast to the rock style of "Ebony Queen," "A Prayer for My Family" is an unaccompanied solo piano piece that I think John Coltrane would have been proud of, introspective but nonetheless reverberating with a spirituality and emotion. "Valley of Life" draws upon a similar Eastern, meditative influence, with Tyner obsessively strumming a koto in a way evoking a waterfall, his bandmates adding to the atmosphere with flute and percussion. With the closing pieces, however, the band returns to rolling up the sleeves and taking care of business. "Rebirth" is the most aggressive track on the album, while the title track sums up the album's various moods in one side-long journey that is much more fiery and mobile than the timeless sands of the African desert would suggest. While no, it's probably not the most subtle album you'll ever find, Sahara is still another Tyner great: wild, free, and exhilarating to listen to. review by Joe McGlinchey — 3-26-06 —

m a t t

Sahara was McCoy Tyner's commercial breakthrough, in whatever sense that meant to a jazz artist in the early 1970s. The record sold over 100,000 copies and was nominated for a Grammy (though Freddie Hubbard's First Light took the award). Sahara consequently got a lot of press; it was the first album of Tyner's to get significant coverage in publications not dedicated to jazz. The success of Sahara helped Tyner solidify his stature with his label, Milestone, for which he would record his most experimental records. Like most of Tyner's work from the period, Sahara feels both old and new, western and non-western. "Ebony Queen" bursts out of the gate with authority, dense and visceral. Yet, for all its muscle, it has an appealing melody and could have become a standard. That Tyner would allow a composition so strong to be carried by his saxophonist is a testament to the confidence he had in this band. "Prayer For My Family" is a rich solo piano piece that shows off Tyner's great keyboard skills. "Valley of Life" features Tyner on koto and Sonny Fortune on flute amid a web of non-western percussion. "Rebirth" shatters "Valley of Life's" pastoral calm with a crisp drum salvo followed by some flailing, dissonant piano. Calvin Hill's chromatic, shimmying bass pattern is the key to the piece's urgency and I've come to regard it as one of Tyner's best. The grand, side-long title track is one of the best extended pieces of Tyner's career, in my opinion. The band takes what they began with the varied, shorter tracks of the first side and builds a single piece of epic proportions. "Sahara" is an example of what I meant in an earlier review when I said that some of McCoy Tyner's 1970s albums have a "progressive" flavor to them; in particular, Sahara seems to draw from a similar spiritual well as Yes' early-'70s albums, even though the music itself is quite different. review by Matt P. — 2-2-06 —