Riff Raff

George Cothran, Jazzbo for Hire Editor's note: When we were looking for somebody to cover jazz pianist McCoy Tyner's recent residency at Yoshi's, the right critic was closer than we thought. A paper-airplane's throw across the office, SF Weekly columnist George Cothran was heard muttering something about his reverence for Tyner's work with John Coltrane. So we sent him off to the Feb. 3 show with Tyner's Afro-Cuban All-Stars. This is his report.

McCoy Tyner likes to make his piano sound like a train. Other times it's sweet as a bird. Often, he plays both ways at once, and you look around for the other pianist.

It's a sound he used to great effect when Tyner served as the centrifugal fury behind John Coltrane, driving the improvisations of a man with a yearning and haunted soul.

Full of percussion and sparkling wit, his playing also fits naturally -- across a vast musical divide -- with the sunny, sexy Afro-Cuban sound he has been pursuing for years.

Tyner has never issued a recording of his Afro-Cuban explorations. The only way you can hear the stuff is if you see him play live with his Afro-Cuban All Stars: Poncho Sanchez (congas), Steve Turre (trombone), Dave Valentin (flute), Gary Bartz (tenor saxophone), Orestes Vilato (timbale), Claudio Roditi (trumpet), Andy Gonzales (bass), and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez (drums).

Last Wednesday, I dropped into Yoshi's at Jack London Square to do just that. Tyner was in his annual two-week residency with his jazz quintet and the All-Stars. I'd never seen Tyner live before, so I was torn whether to see his quintet, where he is most definitely at center stage, or to go see a rare unrecorded Tyner ensemble populated by -- well, they are all stars (many have their own bands with recording contracts) -- which relegates one of the defining masters of jazz piano to a role only a few notches above sideman.

No decision is perfect, and I missed seeing Tyner in a more central role. But the All-Stars sizzled and swung with all the heady decadence of pre-Castro Havana.

The songs shifted from slowly building Latin seductions like "On a Mood" to unabashed salsa. It was definitely an ensemble evening with no player allowed too much time out front; all the hornmen provided short, efficient solos, with Bartz offering the most structure-free bop moments.

Sanchez and Vilato never soloed, opting to merely keep the Latin feel pumping under the surface. During one of a few tasty and understated percussive breaks, Sanchez and Gonzales traded fours and showed what magic can happen when two accomplished musicians don't try to show off.

Wish I could say the same for Valentin, who sucked all the air out of the room during his own overblown, ego-driven solos. This is tough to swallow when you are there to see Tyner the elegant and generous master.

Tyner dropped out for a few bars each time someone else soloed. He did, however, take center stage once, to play a solo number halfway through the show. It was classic Tyner: a mix of styles and rhythms -- ragtime, bop, and classical -- and full of power and sweetness.

I hate to give it up to the pretentious fellow behind me, who was trying to impress the smoky dame in the black dress and the long slenders, but he had it right when he posed the rhetorical question: "How can a man be so powerful and lyrical at the same time? It's just amazing." (George Cothran)

... But the Germans Understand As we've reported, local electronic pop group Halou had run into a series of roadblocks in trying to get their debut record released: The distributor for their label, Bedazzled, folded, leaving We Only Love You without a home. Lately, matters have improved, at least slightly. Bedazzled plans to officially release the record through a cache of smaller distributors on the East Coast on Feb. 16, with a West Coast release slated for March 15, putting the record on the shelves of indie boutiques if not your friendly neighborhood megastore.

In the meantime, the record's been licensed in Europe to the German-based techno label Hyperium; the influx of cash from the deal allows Bedazzled to support Halou's upcoming East Coast tour in March and April. More importantly, says the group's producer and drummer, Mikael Eldridge, it places an American band in the midst of the rigorously pretentious German techno scene. "The Germans will appreciate our inferior beats," he jokes, in a perfect Teutonic accent. (Mark Athitakis)

It's a Benefit At Slim's on Feb. 12, a concert in support of the sixth annual California AIDS Ride features now-he's-local-now-he's-not Mark Eitzel being his normally upbeat self, along with Chuck Prophet and Jim Brunberg and Jeff Pehrson of local house-fillers Box Set performing acoustic. All proceeds benefit the ride's Backroads support team. Tickets are $15; call 255-0333. (Johnny DiPaola)

Send Bay Area music news, band stories, or petty gripes to mathitakis@sfweekly.com, or mail it to Riff Raff, c/o SF Weekly.