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McCoy Tyner

McCoy Tyner is an NEA Jazz Master

It is not an overstatement to say that modern jazz has been shaped by the music of McCoy Tyner. His blues-based piano style, replete with sophisticated chords and an explosively percussive left hand has transcended conventional styles to become one of the most identifiable sounds in improvised music. His harmonic contributions and dramatic rhythmic devices form the vocabulary of a majority of jazz pianists.

Born in 1938 in Philadelphia, he became a part of the fertile jazz and R&B scene of the early ‘50s. His parents imbued him with a love for music from an early age. His mother encouraged him to explore his musical interests through formal training.

At 17 he began a career-changing relationship with Miles Davis’ sideman saxophonist John Coltrane. Tyner joined Coltrane for the classic album My Favorite Things (1960), and remained at the core of what became one of the most seminal groups in jazz history, The John Coltrane Quartet. The band, which also included drummer Elvin Jones and bassist Jimmy Garrison, had an extraordinary chemistry, fostered in part by Tyner’s almost familial relationship with Coltrane.

From 1960 through 1965, Tyner’s name was propelled to international renown, as he developed a new vocabulary that transcended the piano styles of the time, providing a unique harmonic underpinning and rhythmic charge essential to the group's sound. He performed on Coltrane’s classic recordings such as Live at the Village Vanguard, Impressions and Coltrane’s signature suite, A Love Supreme.

In 1965, after over five years with Coltrane's quartet, Tyner left the group to explore his destiny as a composer and bandleader. Among his major projects is a 1967 album entitled The Real McCoy, on which he was joined by saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter and fellow Coltrane alumnus Elvin Jones. His 1972 Grammy-award nomination album Sahara, broke new ground by the sounds and rhythms of Africa. Since 1980, he has also arranged his lavishly textured harmonies for a big band that performs and records when possible. In the late 1980s, he mainly focused on his regular piano trio featuring Avery Sharpe on bass and Aarron Scott on drums. As of today, this trio is still in great demand. He returned to Impulse in 1995, with a superb album featuring Michael Brecker. In 1996 he recorded a special album with the music of Burt Bacharach. In 1998 he changed labels again and recorded an interesting latin album and an album featuring Stanley Clarke for TelArc.

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8
Album Review

John Coltrane: Sun Ship

Read "Sun Ship" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Why is a 180-gram vinyl reissue of John Coltrane's Sun Ship, remastered from the original tapes, important? If you are old enough, you'll remember the advent of the compact disc. After the CD was introduced in the 1980s, listeners abandoned their vinyl collections in favor of the promise of this new technology which was free from the nasty clicks and pops their LPs delivered. What they gave up in the name of cleanliness did come at a cost, and we're ...

16
Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

Read "Evenings At The Village Gate" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


All music is, as are all our greater gestures and pursuits--poetry, painting, literature, sculpture, dance--spiritual by nature. An outreach by the artist and thus, by extension, us, beyond the daily argot of the ordinary. But sometimes those instances are so far and in-between, so masked by the lawlessness of the present moment, that our higher selves are forgotten, or worse, denied. And sometimes the music is downright holy. Welcome to the church known as the Village Gate. Welcome ...

18
Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

Read "Evenings At The Village Gate" reviewed by Chris May


It is important to emphasize, at the outset of this review, that Evenings At The Village Gate is a John Coltrane album of headline significance. Recorded during a four-week run at the New York City club in August and September 1961, the disc is a snapshot of Coltrane partway through the most momentous year of his development. He is in incandescent form from start to finish, leading an astounding sextet completed by multi-reedist Eric Dolphy, pianist McCoy Tyner, twin bassists ...

5
Liner Notes

John Coltrane: Song Of Praise: New York 1965 Revisited

Read "John Coltrane: Song Of Praise: New York 1965 Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Witness [ wit-nis ] an individual who, being present, personally sees or perceives a thing; a beholder, spectator, or eyewitness. Have you ever considered yourself a witness to history? If you answered in the affirmative, let me posit that it was only after time and reflection that this notion occurred to you. Did the soldiers standing in the mud and muck at the Somme during the Great War in 1916 comprehend the significance of the moment? And more ...

7
Album Review

John Coltrane: Favorites Revisited

Read "Favorites Revisited" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Besides “Giant Steps," the songs that every Coltrane fan, er fanatic, has probably committed to memory note-for-note are the three presented here, “Naima," “My Favorite Things" and the four-part suite “A Love Supreme." It is as if those sounds had existed even before John Coltrane penned them. Forgive the hyperbole, but listeners of the great man's music, even newcomers, undoubtedly recognize the treasure these are. Proof certain were the audiences' requests for Coltrane and his quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Song Of Praise: New York 1965 Revisited

Read "Song Of Praise: New York 1965 Revisited" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini


John Coltrane è uno dei pilastri centrali attorno ai quali si è strutturato il jazz moderno. Un suo concerto newyorkese del 1965, al Half Note, era uscito dopo 40 anni sul CD doppio One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note (Impulse!) nel 2005. In quel caso si era mantenuto l'ordine strettamente cronologico partendo con i due brani tratti dal concerto del 26 marzo ("One Down, One Up" e “Afro-Blue") per poi procedere con i due brani tratti dal ...

13
Album Review

John Coltrane: Favorites Revisited

Read "Favorites Revisited" reviewed by Chris May


A major event for connoisseurs of John Coltrane's classic quartet, Favorites Revisited delivers one and a quarter hours of landmark live recordings in state-of-the-art 21st century audio. Professionally recorded, and therefore sounding pretty good even on original release, the material now benefits from remastering by the ezz-thetics label's sonic jedi Michael Brändli. At times, it almost feels like one is hearing the music for the first time. A three-track disc, the first two tracks are “Naima" and ...

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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating McCoy Tyner's birthday today!

It is not an overstatement to say that modern jazz has been shaped by the music of McCoy Tyner. His blues-based piano style, replete with sophisticated chords and an explosively percussive left hand has transcended conventional styles to become one of the most identifiable sounds in improvised music. His harmonic contributions and dramatic rhythmic devices form the vocabulary of a majority of jazz pianists. Born in 1938 in Philadelphia, he became ...

Recording

McCoy Tyner and Freddie Hubbard, 1986

McCoy Tyner and Freddie Hubbard, 1986

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

In 1986, Fabrik—or Factory—stood on the west side of Hamburg, Germany, in the Altona district. Back then, the former machine-parts factory was a cultural center frequented by young people in the left-wing eco-movement and by those on the right, depending on what was on the bill at the performance space. Sometimes the two groups converged when the performers appealed to both groups. As a result, Fabrik's programs were often highly diverse, ranging from pop and ska to punk and jazz. ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating McCoy Tyner's birthday today!

It is not an overstatement to say that modern jazz has been shaped by the music of McCoy Tyner. His blues-based piano style, replete with sophisticated chords and an explosively percussive left hand has transcended conventional styles to become one of the most identifiable sounds in improvised music. His harmonic contributions and dramatic rhythmic devices form the vocabulary of a majority of jazz pianists. Born in 1938 in Philadelphia, he became ...

Video / DVD

Concert: McCoy Tyner in 2002

Concert: McCoy Tyner in 2002

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Two musicians who arguably had the biggest impact on the jazz piano in the 1960s were Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner. They not only came from different backgrounds and experiences but also from different directions. Where Evans was lyrical, delicate and poetic, Tyner was percussive and stormy, using modal scales and chords to whip up drama and furiously rock the listener's boat. Here's Tyner in concert in 2002 with Bobby Hutcherson (vib), Stefano di Battista (as), Charnett Moffett (b) and ...

1

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating McCoy Tyner's birthday today!

It is not an overstatement to say that modern jazz has been shaped by the music of McCoy Tyner. His blues-based piano style, replete with sophisticated chords and an explosively percussive left hand has transcended conventional styles to become one of the most identifiable sounds in improvised music. His harmonic contributions and dramatic rhythmic devices form the vocabulary of a majority of jazz pianists. Born in 1938 in Philadelphia, he became ...

1

Obituary

Bill Smith And McCoy Tyner Are Gone

Bill Smith And McCoy Tyner Are Gone

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

James Moody told me that his Georgia-born grandmother said one morning while looking through the newspaper, “Folks is dyin’ what ain’t never died befo’.” The trend continues, as It always has and, if human suscsceptibility is a guide, always will. Recently, the parade of departures resumed when the jazz world lost two giants in their nineties, McCoy Tyner and William O. Smith. Smith a clarinetist, composer, teacher and formidable arranger, was 93. Encouraged by the classical composer Darius Milhaud when ...

Video / DVD

Video: McCoy Tyner, 1986

Video: McCoy Tyner, 1986

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Yesterday, Jimi Mentis sent along a link to a terrific concert video featuring pianist McCoy Tyner with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Louis Hayes. The concert was recorded at the Jazz Ost-West Festival in Nürmberg, Germany, in 1986. The songs were Birdlike, Just Feeling, As Me Now, Caravan and Inner Glimpse. Here's where the songs fall along the time bar: Birdlike at 00:00 (full quintet), Just Feeling at 05:25 (just the trio), As ...

3

Obituary

McCoy Tyner (1938-2020)

McCoy Tyner (1938-2020)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

McCoy Tyner, whose hypnotically churning and thunderous piano behind John Coltrane's saxophone in the 1960s, starting with My Favorite Things in 1961, altered the evolution of the jazz keyboard, died on March 6. He was 81. Tyner's stampede-like approach and vast use of modal scales created a new approach on the jazz piano, breaking with the modernists of the post-war period. Tyner's attack was exhibited several dozen leadership albums that were recorded well into the 2000s. Tyner remained with Coltrane ...

1

Recording

McCoy Tyner: Inception

McCoy Tyner: Inception

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

McCoy Tyner should receive as much attention as Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson and even Bill Evans. For some reason, he doesn't, and I have no idea why not. Tyner's recordings are as inventive, as rich and as stunning as the other three piano leaders. Of course, Peterson and Monk came up in the late 1940s, and Evans came up in the 1950s, so they had a jump on him. Tyner's trio leadership career didn't begin until the early 1960s, but ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating McCoy Tyner's birthday today!

It is not an overstatement to say that modern jazz has been shaped by the music of McCoy Tyner. His blues- based piano style, replete with sophisticated chords and an explosively percussive left hand has transcended conventional styles to become one of the most identifiable sounds in improvised music. His harmonic contributions and dramatic rhythmic devices form the vocabulary of a majority of jazz pianists... Read more.

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