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SPECIAL TWO WEEK COLLECTION OF REVIEWS. I’M HEADING TO PERU FOR A MEDICAL MISSION TRIP. KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS.

McCoy Tyner
Inception/Reaching Fourth
Impulse! Records
www.umusic.com

Milt Jackson
Statement/Jazz ‘N’ Samba
Impulse! Records
www.umusic.com
By George W. Harris

Here are a few more releases from Impulse’s vaults. Some of them are truly rare delights.

McCoy Tyner’s first few releases as a solo artist are almost like John Coltrane’s quartet doing “Ballads” but without the sax player. The 1962 Inception as him delivering glassy and crystalline takes of “There Is No Greater Love” and “Speak Low” that are exquisite and restrained. The team with Elvin Jones and Art Davis kick it up a bit on the title track, but this is surprisingly well restrained. So is the 63 session with Henry Grimes/b and Roy Haynes/dr as they do a couple originals like the thriving “Blues Back” (which he still performs) as well as a luminescent “Goodbye.” Surprisingly sounding fresh after all these years.

Listening to these two (actually 3 sessions on one of the reissues) recordings by vibist Milt Jackson, you can understand why he stayed with the more classically leaning MJQ for 40 years. As long as he was able to go out and blow through some blues, ballads, bossa’s and bop, he could tolerate the fetters of the more famous band. Here, on sessions from 61 and 64, he’s mixed and matched with Jimmy Heath, Tommy Flanagan/p, Connie Kay/dr, Hank Jones/p Howard Collins/g and Richard Davis for some wonderful and loose tunes. Songs like “Gingerbread Boy” and ”Sonnymoon For Two” are simply the essence of modern jazz, as Jackson creates good vibes all around. A few of the bossas have singer Lillian Clark who does a pretty good Ella impersonation of “Jazz ‘N’ Samba. Hard not to fall in love with this timeless treasure.

Curtis Fuller’s two 1962 sessions for Impulse! have him in the mixed company of a Gil Evans-inspired big band, strings, and a smaller group with the likes of Freddie Hubbard/tp, Cedar Walton/p, Jimmy Cobb/dr, and Jymie Merritt/b. Fuller’s horn on “Dear Old Stockholm” is velvety, while he bops with the best on “The Breeze and I” and “Newdles.” Hubbard is in his absolute element here, and the melding of brass is like molten gold. His take of the ballad "In The Wee Small Hours" is stunning and haunting. The rarely surfaced Cabin In The Sky session has Fuller in a larger ensemble, with the title track and “My Old Virginia Home” sounding pretty darned good in a more jazz setting. A bit of a variance from what you’d expect from the hard bopper, but definitely not a let down.