Guitars

Pianist McCoy Tyner's dramatic arpeggios, thunderous bass pulses and modulated chord voicings have inspired generations of aspiring jazz musicians. An acoustic purist who sustained a viable career through the heavily electrified fusion era, Tyner has maintained impressive consistency in his performances and recordings since his seminal tenure in John Coltrane's classic mid-sixties quartet.

Tyner's vast discography includes relatively few guitar wielding side-men; Guitars, then, is unique in Tyner's oeuvre as it contains a rotating roster of high profile guitarists, featuring Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, John Scofield, Derek Trucks and banjo wizard Bela Fleck.

Bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jack DeJohnette form Tyner's close-knit rhythm section. Revered masters with a deep-seated rapport decades in the making, their skills are unparalleled; they ease through shifting rhythms, modulating tempos and tricky harmonic changes with effortless grace.

Tyner has never sounded better, his monolithic chords resound with timeless drama while his expansive arpeggios ripple with cosmic intensity; his left hand summons a thunderous undercurrent while his right cuts a kaleidoscopic swath through the undertow. Continue reading at ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM.