Alfred McCoy Tyner
(born 11 December,1938 [1]) is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career. [2]
|
MCCOY TYNER TICKETS
|
Biography
Early life
Tyner was born in Philadelphia as the oldest of three children. He was encouraged to study piano by his mother. He began studying the piano at age 13 and within two years, music had become the focal point in his life. His early influences included
Bud Powell, a Philadelphia neighbor. As a young man, he converted to Islam through the
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, and was active in the objectives of the organization during the pinnacle of his career.
Early career
Tyner's first main exposure came with
Benny Golson, being the first pianist in Golson's and
Art Farmer's legendary Jazztet (1960). After departing the Jazztet, Tyner joined Coltrane's group in 1960 during its extended run at the Jazz Gallery replacing
Steve Kuhn. (Coltrane had known Tyner for a while in Philadelphia, and featured one of the pianist's compositions, "The Believer", as early as 1958.) He appeared on the saxophonist's popular recording of "My Favorite Things" for Atlantic Records. The Coltrane Quartet, which consisted of Coltrane on
tenor sax, Tyner,
Jimmy Garrison on
bass, and
Elvin Jones on
drums, toured almost non-stop between 1961 and 1965 and recorded a number of classic albums, including
Live at the Village Vanguard
,
Ballads
,
Live at Birdland
,
Crescent
,
A Love Supreme
, and
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays ...
, on the
Impulse! label.
Tyner has recorded a number of highly influential albums in his own right. While in Coltrane's group, he recorded a series of important albums (primarily in the piano trio format) for
Impulse! Records.
The pianist also appeared as a sideman in many of the highly acclaimed
Blue Note Records albums of the 1960s, although was often credited as 'etc.' on the cover of these albums (when listing the sidemen on the album) in order to respect his contractual obligations at
Impulse Records.
His involvement with John Coltrane came to an end in 1965. Coltrane's music was becoming much more atonal and free; he had also augmented his quartet with percussion players who threatened to drown out both Tyner and Jones.This seemed at add to his drive and character about wanting to kake music his own and unique. Tyner was somewhat bitter about the change in Coltrane's direction: 'I didn't see myself making any contribution to that music...All I could hear was a lot of noise. I didn't have any feeling for the music, and when I don't have feelings, I don't play'. By 1966, Tyner was rehearsing with a new trio and would now fully embark on his career as a leader.
[3]
Post-Coltrane
After leaving Coltrane's group, Tyner produced a series of
post-bop albums released on
Blue Note Records from 1967 to 1970 which included
The Real McCoy
(1967),
Tender Moments
(1967),
Expansions
(1968) and
Extensions
(1970). Soon thereafter he moved to the Milestone label and recorded many influential albums, including
Sahara
(1972),
Enlightenment
(1973), and
Fly with the Wind
(1976), which featured flautist
Hubert Laws, drummer
Billy Cobham, and a string orchestra. His music for Blue Note and Milestone often took the Coltrane quartet's music as a point of departure and also incorporated African and East Asian musical elements. On
Sahara
, for instance, Tyner plays
koto, in addition to piano, flute, and percussion. These albums are often cited as examples of vital, innovative jazz from the 1970s that was neither
fusion nor
free jazz.
Trident
(1975) is notable for featuring Tyner on
harpsichord (rarely heard in jazz) and
celeste, in addition to his primary instrument, piano.
Tyner still records and tours regularly and played from the 1980s through '90s with a trio that included
Avery Sharpe on bass and
Aaron Scott on drums. He made a trio of solo recordings for Blue Note, starting with
Revelations
(1988) and culminating with
Soliloquy
(1991). Today Tyner records for the Telarc label and has been playing with different trios, one of which has included
Charnett Moffett on bass and
Eric Harland on drums. In 2008, Tyner toured with his quartet, which featured legendary jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz with Gerald Cannon (bass) and Eric Kamau Gravatt (drums).
McCoy was also a judge for the 6th annual
Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.
[4]
Style
Tyner's style of piano is easily comparable to Coltrane' style of saxophone.
Though a member of Coltrane's group, he was never overshadowed by the saxophonist, but complemented and even inspired Coltrane's open-minded approach.
Tyner is one of the most influential pianists of the
20th Century, an honor he earned both with Coltrane and in his years of performing following Coltrane's passing.
Though instruments of vastly different versatility, both Tyner and Coltrane utilize similar scales, chordal structures, melodic phrasings, and rhythms. Tyner's playing can be distinguished by a low bass left hand, in which he tends to raise his arm relatively high above the keyboard for an emphatic attack; the fact that Tyner is left-handed may contribute to this distinctively powerful style. Tyner's unique right-hand soloing is recognizable for a detached, or
staccato, quality. His melodic vocabulary is rich, ranging from raw
blues to complexly
superimposed pentatonic scales; his unique approach to chord voicing (most characteristically by fourths) has influenced a wide array of contemporary jazz pianists, most notably
Chick Corea.
Discography
thumb
References
- Allmusic Biography
- McCoy tyner Biography
- Lewis Porter, ''John Coltrane: his life and music'', p. 268
- Independent Music Awards - 6th Annual Judges