Sahara

In 1972, pianist McCoy Tyner left Blue Note records for Milestone, and made his label debut with an extremely adventurous album that also turned out to be his commercial breakthrough, selling over 100,000 copies. The music was carefully crafted in the studio and featured every member of the band on multiple instruments. In addition to piano, Tyner played koto, percussion, and flute; Sonny Fortune played soprano and alto saxophone, and flute; bassist Calvin Hill also played reeds and percussion; and drummer Alphonse Mouzon contributed trumpet, reeds, and percussion. The koto, showcased on “Valley of Life,” is particularly beautiful, creating a Zen interlude in the middle of the album’s first side before the aggro post-bop sprint of “Rebirth.” The title track is a 23-minute epic that starts off with tootling flutes but soon becomes a full-speed-ahead marathon with plenty of overdubbed percussion and reeds (and a machine-gun Mouzon solo).