Taking Off: A Brief Review Of Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs' From McCoy Tyner And Joe Henderson On Blue Note

This is extraordinary. What the newly-unearthed Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' does more than anything is remind folks of just what an amazing player McCoy Tyner was. I'm lucky that I got to see Tyner at D.C.'s Blues Alley in the late Eighties and early Nineties, but even then he didn't play with the kind of fire and sense of adventure that one can hear here. And, of course, a Joe Henderson set from 1966 is something one should always listen to. Captured at the right moment in the careers of each of these two musicians, this Blue Note offering is one of the most significant jazz releases of 2024.

Drummer Jack DeJohnette had these tapes stored away and only recently were they dusted off and made ready for this release. Recorded at Slugs' Saloon in NYC in 1966, this nearly 90-minute set is unreal. It is heavy, explosive stuff, with the players here -- Joe Henderson on tenor sax, McCoy Tyner on piano, Henry Grimes on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums -- playing with near-abandon as they tackle these cuts. A ruminative and emotive run at "The Believer", a Tyner composition from the John Coltrane album of the same name shows how well this quartet played together, even as other parts of this five-song collection showcase the skills of each individual musician. "Taking Off", another McCoy-penned number, allows space for a frenetic solo from drummer DeJohnette, and plenty of space for Tyner's nimble and furious keyboard runs. Joe Henderon offers up playful yet forceful solos in "Isotope" from his 1966 album Inner Urge, here given more room for significant roaming in the cut. The players -- particularly Tyner -- add lush and thrilling fills to every melody on the release, with Grimes being the real anchor of this whole performance.

Joe Henderson had had his own band before this, had played with Tyner on those solo records, and so his playing here is assured and as warm as it would remain into the Nineties. For Tyner, coming out of Coltrane's band here in 1966, these performances echo the searching quality that Trane was famous for. McCoy, in command of the piano, alternates between melodic passages which are downright lovely, and those which are remarkably adventurous. I have heard a lot of Tyner albums as both band member and leader and I can say I don't know if I've ever heard him play with such force before. His style remains distinctive here, but there's something in these tracks that feels like we're hearing McCoy take chances that place this at the more complex end of the hard bop spectrum. I've never heard a bad Joe Henderson record, so obviously this is worth getting for his work, but it's McCoy Tyner's keys which give this shade, fervor, and amazing intricacy.

Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' by McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson is out now via Blue Note on vinyl, CD, and digital.

[Photos: Cover courtesy of Blue Note; photos of McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson courtesy of Francis Wolff and Blue Note]