McCoy Tyner

Asante is a McCoy Tyner session recorded for Blue Note on 10 September 1970 and held back until April 1974, when it came out as BN-LA223-G. On his late 1960s Blue Note records Tyner had looked more and more to Africa, in pieces like African Village and Message from the Nile. Here those influences move to the centre of the music.

The septet was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs by Rudy Van Gelder, with Duke Pearson producing. Tyner plays piano and, now and then, wooden flute. Beside him are Andrew White on alto saxophone, Ted Dunbar on guitar and Buster Williams on bass. All four compositions are by the leader, and the original LP was remixed at the U.A. Recording Studio before release.

The ground is a swirling percussive bed laid down by drummer Billy Hart and percussionist Mtume on congas. The vocalist Songai Sandra Smith sings on the first two pieces, the fourteen-minute opener Malika and the title track. The modal language Tyner had developed in the John Coltrane Quartet runs through the album. It comes through most clearly on the closing Fulfillment, another fourteen-minute piece. Between the two long tracks sits Goin' Home, close to eight minutes.

Reviewing it for AllMusic, Scott Yanow noted that the record is unusual for putting group interplay ahead of individual solos. Writing at Burning Ambulance in 2018, Phil Freeman placed it among the Blue Note sessions that were held back for years. Dusty Groove, for its part, singled out White as a reedman who rarely got this much exposure.

This stereo Tone Poet edition was produced by Joe Harley and mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analogue tapes. It is pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket, with a double-sided Reel To Real: Syncopated Rewind insert by Syd Schwartz.