McCoy Tyner‘s 1970 album Asante is the latest title to join Blue Note’s Tone Poet audiophile reissue series, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and produced by Joe Harley.
Tyner is best known as the pianist in the John Coltrane Quartet from 1960 to 1965, a period that generated some of the most celebrated recordings in jazz history, including A Love Supreme. After leaving Coltrane’s group — whose music had grown increasingly atonal — Tyner established himself as a solo artist through a run of post-bop records for Blue Note between 1967 and 1970, including The Real McCoy, Expansions, and Extensions. Throughout that period, he drew on musical influences from Africa and East Asia, alongside the Coltrane Quartet’s modal vocabulary, pushing his sound beyond its bop origins.
Asante brought those African influences to the fore; the title itself is a reference to the Ashanti people of West Africa. The session features a percussion-heavy ensemble: Billy Hart and Mtume lay down the rhythmic foundation, joined by Buster Williams on bass, Ted Dunbar on guitar, Andrew White on reeds, and the vocals of Songai. It was the last album Tyner recorded for Blue Note before moving to Milestone Records, where his debut, Sahara, earned him his first Grammy nominations and was named Album of the Year in the DownBeat critics’ poll.
Tyner, who died in March 2020 at the age of 81, won five Grammy Awards over his career. He was also named an NEA Jazz Master in 2002. He continued to perform live regularly until the late 2000s.
