Customer Reviews

Illuminations

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

. . . I suppose that rules me out as an objective assessor of his music.

So be it. I can live with that. So long as I keep getting my periodic fix of his pianistic gloriousness. As happens here.

First the sound. Crystalline, pure, unalloyed. Telarc with its Direct Stream Digital scores big when it gets the right artist recording. And McCoy Tyner is the right artist. In spades. He's one of those guys whose music becomes that much more wonderful upon close scrutiny, which the direct stream digital process delivers. His right hand--face it--is to die for. Plus, he's got that cascade-note thing absolutely down.

Next, his bandmates. A bunch of younger guys (Louis Nash, drums, being THE key player here; Christian McBride, a bassist with chops and taste to die for; and Terrance Blanchard, who has recently reconfigured himself into perhaps THE monster player of his generation--sorry, Dave Douglas), the ringer being old guy Gary Bartz. The anchor here, the sine qua non, is Louis Nash. He comes across as perhaps Tyner's most simpatico drummer ever. For example, he perfectly matches his coloristic splashes with apposite, though absolutely controlled, pyrotechnics, especially made manifest on "The Chase."

Christian McBride is also a monster. Listen to his mesmeric arco (and then pizzicato) playing on "West Philly Tone Poem." And Terrance Blanchard seems totally into it, whether it be through his gorgeous reading of "Alone Together," with his controlled vibrato and smears, or his extroversion on the romping "New Orleans Stomp."

Gary Bartz is the ringer. Roughly Tyner's contemporary, he strikes the same jaunty, lightly worn rhythmic sophistication as the leader, reeling off great choruses and providing the perfect complement to Tyner's signature bubbling, dancing right-hand statements.

As for the songs, there's about an equal mix of standards and originals. The program, though essentially a hardbop/postbop/modal outing, is carefully thought out and stylishly presented, which it must be, if this somewhat shopworn music is to hold one's interest.

But to reiterate, things are consistently hot-wired by Louis Nash's marvelous drumming, landing this session in the must-hear category.

Let me be clear: McCoy Tyner is an excellent musician, and I just love his work. This is a wonderful album musically, but the sound quality leaves something to be desired. 4/5 for the music, but 2/5 for the recording quality!

I got hooked on McCoy Tyner on his _Land of Giants_ CD - which is an amazing CD, great music and a truly spectacular recording and transfer to disc. Illuminations is even better for a music point of view - but in my stereo system at home - instead of being blown away, I was dissappointed.

The recording seems to have lost some of the brilliance of the drums (they sounded flat as if something was wrong with the drums or the miking of the drums) and the overall presence of the music was much less than it could have been (it sounded as if someone had tossed a veil over my speakers!) - it was billed as being a "direct from DSD transfer" but boy did that not seem to help at all! It got a little bit better on the following tracks, but the drums never seemed to get fixed which ruined the whole album for me. The average recording level seemed really low as well - making me crank up the volume to get the same level of loudness from most other albums making me think that someone had not adjusted the level and done their job in crafting the music. As you could see, I had spent a lot of my time wondering what went wrong rather than getting lost in the music as I had done upon pressing "play" in his Land of Giants disc. I consider something gone horribly wrong with the technical mastering/creation of this disc!

Since my home stereo is a bit revealing, I though I would give it a second chance and I listened to it in my car - and it sounded a bit better though the drums sounded really flat either way. For my money, I hoped that the sound engineers had done a better job in mastering, but CD recording quality is very uneven even today, even in Jazz titles. [Note that the sound is better than the Real Player samples on Amazon, though not a huge amount better!]

If you want stuff from this artist - check out Land of Giants which is a great performance and recording - I am not sure what went wrong in the transfer to disc, but I would not have bought this album in hindsight.

In summary: Great Artist, Great Music, Medoicre Sound Quality.

This is an excellent recording and I owe public radio gratitude for bringing this great music to the PUBLIC! McCoy Tyner is the real McCoy; everything that was there with Coltrane not only remains but has flourished..From the Latin style on "Angelina" which attracted me to this CD to the N'awlin's groove that captured my heart and feet on "New Orleans' Stomp"! Don't waste your time waiting for great music; this music is Now, this music is here and it will be here when the so-called "next big thing" comes along!

A masterful performance from jazz legend McCoy Tyner very ably supported by a fine group of musicians. Lewis Nash's drumming is absolutely fabulous. Tyner still hangs chords and then surrounds them with cascading notes in the style that he is known and admired for. Here's a musician that has lost nothing in terms of either technique or imagination and in fact on this recording sounds better than ever to me and that's saying something considering his long list of wonderful recordings over the years.

The mix of tunes here is perfect to display the range of McCoy Tyner as well as the other members of this group. There are ballads, up tempo post bop grooves , some latin tinged phrasing and a little taste of New Orleans boogie.

Bottom line is this is a chance to hear a real master at work and should not be missed. Final comment : Terence Blanchard has won me over as a fan with his work here. He sounds fantastic.

hi, first of all i am a true fan . I own both telarc's sacd :Mc coy tyner with stanley clarcke and al foster and land of gaints .I bought "illuminations" last week,and i immediatly enjoyed it.I'm just dissapointed about the general mix,the drumset sound seems flat and the peak level is lower than others telarc's sacd.I've got a good hi-fi system and this is the first time that i'm dissapointed with the quality sound of a telarc sacd.Anyway, if you like tyner's music and you are not an audiophile, you can buy this one too.

first of all, mccoy tyner has history scanning four decades. and, historically, this is not his best recording. try listening to the real mccoy and tyner on david henderson's inner urge.
the music here is all too contemporary, which isn't all bad when you consider the contemporary players, nash, blanchard, mcbride, tyner has chosen. but that's just it, he's chosen them almost as a showcase, and these established performers hardly need showcasing. the cd belongs to them, with tyner and bartz sitting in as elder statesmen of jazz.
gary bartz is a reflective saxophonist given to flights of magic when inspired by his personal muse and here that magic is missing.
a nice album, some latin tinged numbers and melodic pieces. and everyone under fifty gets plenty of time, particularly terance blanchard under whose rubic this cd could easily had been released.

What can I say? Great listening.

I'm playing back on a Sony SACD player connected to a 2307 Denon receiver and use moderately priced Boston Accoustic speakers.

To my ear, the SACD disk is more than a bit, get it - bit, better than the standard CD disk. Perhaps the recording could be better, but, it is good.

Don't you hate it when someone points out a tiny tiny freckle on a beautiful woman. From that point on you miss the beauty in nature's imperfect world. The recording is what it is and will never be redone. So what. It's good stuff.

I had seen McCoy Tyner in concert the night I ordered the CD and I am glad that I did. Jazz fans will love it.