McCoy Tyner Big Band - Journey

This record rewards multiple listens. On my first pass through I did not pay much attention. There is some of McCoy's thunder on the first track, Samba Dei Ber, but after that it turned into background music.

Subsequent listens revealed all of the essential McCoy elements: the intense left hand, the lightning runs up top, and on Peresina (my favourite track), the quirky compositional style that marks his best tunes. It is no mistake that he has revisited this song repeatedly since it first appeared on his Blue Note classic Expansions back in 1968...

Here's some info cribbed from Wikipedia:

"Samba Dei Ber" (Rangelov) - 4:20
"Juanita" (Turre) 11:00
"Choices" (Mackrel) - 11:17
"You Taught My Heart to Sing" (Cahn, Tyner) - 6:17
"Peresina" - 11:15
"Blues on the Corner" - 9:29
"January in Brasil" (Sharpe) - 6:04

All compositions by McCoy Tyner except as indicated

Recorded in NYC, November 19 & 20, 1991

Personnel

McCoy Tyner: piano, arranger
Eddie Henderson: trumpet
Earl Gardner: trumpet
Virgil Jones: trumpet
Frank Lacy: trombone
Slide Hampton; trombone (track 1)
Steve Turre: trombone, arranger
John Clark french horn
Tony Underwood: tuba
Joe Ford: alto saxophone
Doug Harris: alto saxophone, flute
Billy Harper: tenor saxophone
John Stubblefield: tenor saxophone
Ronnie Cuber: baritone saxophone (track 1)
Avery Sharpe: bass
Aaron Scott: drums
Jerry Gonzalez: percussion, trumpet
Valtinho Anastacio: percussion (track 1)
Dianne Reeves: vocal (track 4)

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