McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson – FORCES OF NATURE: LIVE AT SLUGS’

1. In ‘N Out (Joe Henderson) 26:40
2. We’ll Be Together Again (Carl Fischer/Frankie Laine) 14:12
3. Taking Off (McCoy Tyner/Joe Henderson/Jack DeJohnette/Henry Grimes) 28:14
4. The Believer (McCoy Tyner) 10:01
5. Isotope (Joe Henderson) 7:03

McCoy Tyner: Piano / Joe Henderson: Tenor Saxophone / Henry Grimes: Bass / Jack DeJohnette: Drums

Recorded live by Orville O’Brien at Slugs’, New York, NY in 1966

Produced for release by Zev Feldman, Jack DeJohnette, Lydia DeJohnette and Matthew Garrison

Executive Producer: Don Was

Eine Jazz-Entdeckung von Gewicht: „Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs’“ ist eine bislang unveröffentlichte, energiegeladene Live-Aufnahme der beiden Jazzlegenden McCoy Tyner und Joe Henderson an der Spitze eines gemeinsamen Quartetts mit Bassist Henry Grimes und Schlagzeuger Jack DeJohnette, mitgeschnitten 1966 im ehemaligen New Yorker Jazzheiligtum Slugs‘ Saloon.

Aufgenommen wurde das Konzert von Toningenieur Orville O’Brien, der berühmte Jazzalben der 1960er Jahre wie Alice Coltranes „Journey to Satchidananda“, Freddie Hubbards „The Night of the Cookers“ und Charles Tollivers „Music Inc.“ aufnahm. Seit 1966 befand sich das Band in Jack DeJohnettes persönlichem Archiv und erblickt hier zum allerersten Mal das Licht der Welt. CD und LP enthalten ein ausführliches Booklet mit seltenen Fotos von Francis Wolff, Raymond Ross und Robert Polillo, dazu kommen Linernotes von Autor und Kritiker Nate Chinen sowie Interviews mit und Statements von Jason Moran, Joe Lovano, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, Nasheet Waits und Terri Lyne Carrington.

INFO

This recording of an absolutely extraordinary night at Slug’s in 1966 takes us on a wild journey to the furthest reaches of these songs. Freed from the time constraints imposed by vinyl albums and the self-consciousness that can accompany the red light of the recording studio, Messrs. Henderson, Tyner, DeJohnette and Grimes take their time exploring every back alley and side street written into the compositions.

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Joe Henderson. He spent his formative years in my hometown of Detroit and his combination of unbridled energy, soulful storytelling and profound musical expertise epitomizes the music that comes from our city. In 1966, the title track from his Blue Note album Mode For Joe was the first ‘jazz’ song I ever really heard. It stopped me in my tracks and taught a never-to be-forgotten lesson about the transformational power of this music.

Both Mode For Joe and Mr. Tyner’s The Real McCoy were recorded within a year of this gig. The album captures both artists at critical junctures in their musical lives. Jack DeJohnette was only 23 at the time of this recording… yet it’s clear that he was already well on his way to changing the face of modern drumming forever. Henry Grimes – who, in 1966, had been recording with Albert Ayler, Don Cherry and Cecil Taylor – demonstrated that he was equally as innovative playing a straight-ahead blues for 27 minutes.

It’s mind-blowing that, thanks to the largesse of Mr. DeJohnette, these recordings are finally seeing the light of day after 58 years! They allow us to take a peek into a very special moment in time.

• Don Was / Executive Producer

This Joe Henderson-McCoy Tyner album has been one of most exciting projects I’ve ever been involved with. Being able to work on it with the legendary Jack DeJohnette, who maintained a copy of the tape in his library was a true honor.

In 2018, attorney Stephen Reich introduced me to Jack, a drum icon whom I had admired for many years. Stephen introduced me to Jack to see if I might be able to help him find an outlet for releasing recordings from his extensive personal archives. I had a really wonderful time meeting Jack and Lydia DeJohnette, as well as their godson, the bassist Matthew Garrison, son of bassist Jimmy Garrison, on that trip and on several others that followed. As it happened, I had just started working with Blue Note Records as a consulting archival producer. This was exactly the type of material Don Was and I were looking for as the basis for exciting releases on Blue Note.

On this recording we hear four legendary jazz masters in peak form during an exciting time in their careers captured at one of the most hallowed and long-lost jazz shrines, Slugs‘ Saloon. For many of us jazz fans, Slugs‘ was a venue heavily imbued with the patina of the deepest jazz history, this music that constitutes an important pillar of American culture. Slugs‘ was literally THE spot, a place everyone from Larry Young to Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Sun Ra, Tony Williams, Charles Lloyd and so many others would play and hang out. It’s certainly one of the holiest of even the most legendary jazz venues in the world. Look at some of the concert calendars that have circulated online and you will be astonished by the greatness that came through those doors virtually every night.

This recording was made at Slugs‘ by engineer Orville O’Brien. He might be familiar to some fans, as he recorded a number of classic performances for albums such as Freddie Hubbard’s The Night of the Cookers: Live at Club la Marchal, Vols. 1 & 2, Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc. on Strata-East and even Ornette Coleman’s Friends and Neighbors: Live at Prince Street on Flying Dutchman. O’Brien is also the father of Guy O’Brien, aka Master Gee of the Sugar Hill Gang. You can read more about Orville O’Brien later in these pages.

It’s clear to me that anyone listening to these recordings will find their jaw on the floor a lot of the time. It captures Joe Henderson and McCoy Tyner at the height of their powers with an incomparable rhythm team behind them.

I want to thank Jack, of course, for his incredible performance and also for holding on to the tape all these years. I also want to thank Lydia DeJohnette, Matthew Garrison and engineer Matthew Lutthans, for all their time and participation working with us on this production. And I’d especially like to thank Don Was for making this project a reality. Finally, a big thank-you to the families — Deen Tyner of the McCoy Tyner Estate and Malcolm McDaniel of the Joe Henderson Estate — for their support.

It’s so exciting for us to see, at long last, the release of this recording after a long journey, a journey that had me meeting with Matthew Garrison in Brooklyn to receive the tape, then making my way back home to Maryland with the tape and then flying out a week later to meet up with the engineer Matthew Lutthans at O’Hare airport to hand the tape to him to work on, all to ensure that this one-of-a-kind, never-before-heard tape would be handled in the safest possible way. Now the music on this masterpiece will be available for all to hear for the very first time as we celebrate the legacy of these master musicians.

• Zev Feldman / Producer

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