The great pianist McCoy Tyner made his Blue Note debut with The Real McCoy in 1967 soon after departing John Coltrane’s quartet and returned to the studio months after Coltrane’s death to record Tender Moments with an expanded ensemble featuring a 6-piece horn section. For his 3rd Blue Note date Time For Tyner, recorded in 1968, the pianist went a different direction by assembling a hornless quartet with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Freddie Waits. Tyner and Hutcherson’s first recorded encounter came on the vibraphonist’s 1966 Blue Note album Stick-Up, and here their musical comradery deepened even further. The piano-vibraphone led configuration imbues the album with ethereal textures throughout, but the musicians nonetheless deliver visceral and thrilling performances. The 6-song set begins with three expansive Tyner originals—“African Village,” “Little Madimba,” and “May Street”—and ends with three radically reinvented standards—a quartet version of “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was” followed by a trio version of “”Surrey with the Fringe on Top” before Tyner closes the album with a stunning solo piano performance of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”

This stereo Tone Poet Vinyl Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray (Cohearent Audio) from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI), and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket