Moses Tyson, Jr. – Music Re-Mastered & Sacred Organ Music

Moses Tyson, Jr.
Music Re-Mastered & Sacred Organ Music
TYMO Gospel Music (2010)
http://www.mosestysonjr.com/

If you missed Moses Tyson, Jr.’s Music the first time around, you haven’t missed it completely.

The reigning Dean of the Hammond B3 has just re-mastered and re-released the eleven-year-old project, co-produced by Edwin Hawkins and Niko Lyras, along with a second disc of organ instrumentals.

Tyson plays Laurens Hammond’s invention with the mind of Jimmy Smith and the heart of Billy Preston. Under his direction, the B3 gets in touch with emotions it never knew it had. One moment it is cascading a waterfall of notes or shooting at invisible space invaders, and the next, it’s a caldron boiling over or a saint squalling in the throes of Holy Ghost possession. The B3’s infinite expressions have made it a perfect accompaniment to gospel music since the late 1930s, and Tyson pulls on all of them.

Music Re-Mastered (disc one) finds Tyson amidst an assembly of talented singers, including Edwin Hawkins and Lynette Hawkins-Stephens. Together, they deliver traditional-style arrangements of songs such as “Walk in the Light” and the uptempo “You Got to Move.”  Rev. Richard “Mr. Clean” White’s “House Call” is a clever depiction of Jesus as a Biblical soul doctor making house visits (“no appointment necessary”).

Tyson’s bluesy cover of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” includes psychedelic flourishes that could have come from the organist’s cousin, Sly Stone. A version of the saccharine “One Day at a Time” is one of the best I’ve heard, next to former Lux Singer Bertha Melson’s a cappella renditions straight outta the pew during Chicago programs.

Where roughly half of the tracks on Music Re-Mastered are funky and soulful organ instrumentals, Sacred Organ Music (disc two) is given over entirely to introspective organ expositions of church classics such as “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Old Ship of Zion.”  Here, Tyson’s employment of dynamic shifts on sustained vibrato demonstrates a measure of allegiance to Rev. Maceo Woods.

In summary, Music Re-Mastered gives listeners a chance to re-explore an album that is gospel with a capital G. Sacred Organ Music is icing on the cake.

Keyboardists take note: in January 2011, Tyson will be demonstrating the new Hammond Mini B in various cities across the country.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “House Call,” “I Can See Clearly Now.”