McCoy Tyner, Today and Tomorow, Impulse

Like Reaching Fourth this is another opportunity to hear Tyner in the '60s outside the context of the Coltrane quartet (of course, you want to hear him inside the context of the Coltrane quartet as often as possible, too). He does a rapid-fire Night in Tunisia with the dexterity of a stride master like Luckey Roberts or Willie "The Lion" Smith and plays Autumn Leaves with the elegance of a Dave Brubeck or Oscar Peterson.

But the bigger attraction here, I think, are the three cuts with horns, including underappreciated Frank Strozier on alto, Thad Jones on trumpet and, most notably, John Gilmore on tenor. It is Gilmore's presence that prompted me to buy the CD. Tyner played, and still plays, plenty of his own sessions. But there are few recordings of Gilmore outside the context of Sun Ra's Arkestras.

I certainly think Gilmore's playing is important in that context and respect (even cherish in cases like Jazz in Silhouette, The Magic City and Lanquidity) the music. But Sun Ra's output was very much about ensemble play and having the pieces making up a greater whole. Soloists tend not to stand out. Gilmore gets an opportunity to stand out here on tunes such as T 'N A Blues and Three Flowers in a more conventional setting than with Sun Ra, highlighting the marvelous, singular tone I think of as deep but not heavy, and just what a great jazz tenor saxman he was.