# McCoy Tyner’s Revolution: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/12/21/mccoy-tyners-revolution-video-photos/
- Published: 2018-12-21T20:54:04+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Tootie Heath remembers a day Lee Morgan came to get him at school, probably in
1951 or 1952. Although Morgan was a few years younger than Tootie, the future trumpet
legend was precocious and always looking out for more local talent on the streets
of Philadelphia.**

Morgan walked Tootie several blocks to a beauty salon. In the back of the salon 
was a kid Morgan’s age playing the piano. He was allowed to practice there because
his mother owned the salon. Morgan and Tootie heard the torrents of keyboard sound,
looked at each other, and said: “Wow!”

John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner began practicing together in the mid-50s. Coltrane
recorded Tyner’s blues waltz “The Believer” in 1958; two years later Tyner joined
Coltrane’s band. Coltrane’s 1960 hit recording of “My Favorite Things” with Tyner
on piano was also a waltz.

Conventional wisdom suggests that Tyner was Coltrane’s disciple. This is true, but
it also true that Coltrane got a lot from Tyner.  In one interview with Bob Dawbarn,
Coltrane said, “Tyner plays some things on the piano, but I don’t know what they
are.” For the big band album _Africa/Brass_, Coltrane told his arranger Eric Dolphy
to get the voicings from Tyner.

Part of what those “things” are, those voicings, are chords stacked in fourths. 
Lacking a third, fourth chords have a mysterious stasis, refusing to commit to major
or minor. Tyner told Len Lyons that Debussy and Stravinsky were two of his favorite
composers. Both Debussy and Stravinsky used fourth chords, but it is a phrase in
Ravel’s “La vallée des cloches” that seems to prefigure Tyner.  You could even use
jazz notation for the harmony: G-flat lydian and F minor 11.

![ravel bells.jpg](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/ravel-
bells.jpg?w=640)

I’m not suggesting that Tyner literally lifted his left hand harmony from four bars
of Ravel! However, these four bars are the only thing from pre-1950 European piano
literature that even remotely suggest Tyner’s future sound world.

“La vallée des cloches” is an attempt to summon bells. When a composer summons bells
at the piano, it’s a way to undo conventional harmony. I’ve written an essay suggesting
that Red Garland was connected to bells; I see McCoy Tyner in exactly the same tradition.

Before Tyner, Garland was Coltrane’s most important accompanist. Whether they were
played by Garland or Tyner, bright, bell-related sounds at the keyboard were a perfect
mesh with the cascades coming from Coltrane’s horn.

Tyner also loved Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. As a kid he talked about them all
the time, and eventually his high school running buddies called him “Bud Monk.” 
Powell gave him the message directly, frequently coming by to practice on Tyner’s
piano, and Monk was another crucial member of the extended Coltrane musical family.
In Lewis Porter’s book on Coltrane, there’s an important quote from Tyner about 
Monk and Coltrane, including the telling sentences, “The music of Monk is strange,
fleeting, and presents the peculiarity of being at one time very shifting but also
very grounded, with a very sure tempo. My playing, I believe, possessed also this
metronomic rhythmic accuracy….because I have a good strong left hand, John knew 
that he could count on this rhythmic foundation….”

Harold Mabern gives Bud’s brother Richie Powell credit for the bitonal piano intro
on the Clifford Brown/Max Roach “Delilah,” saying it was a source for McCoy Tyner’s
harmonic innovations. Tyner himself name-checks the younger Powell in an early interview
for his “sustaining chords.”

African music entered Tyner’s consciousness in the early ’50s, when a Ghanaian drummer
named Saka Acquaye arrived at Philadelphia’s Temple University to study political
science, and earned tuition money by teaching African rhythms to local drummers 
at a dance school that employed the teenage pianist as an accompanist.

Acquaye; Monk; Powell younger and older, Garland; the rest of jazz and European 
literature. McCoy’s influences are discernible, but in end he sounded absolutely
like no one else. As the Coltrane group grew more popular, Tyner’s approach traveled
like a shockwave through the community. No one — not Art Tatum, not Powell, not 
Monk, not Bill Evans — dropped a bomb on jazz pianists quite like McCoy Tyner. There
was pre-McCoy and post-McCoy, and that was all she rote.

As influential as he’s been, there’s something eternally mysterious about Tyner’s
vocabulary. (Coltrane: “Tyner plays some things on the piano, but I don’t know what
they are.”) That’s not true of Tyner’s two best students, Herbie Hancock and Chick
Corea. After you transcribe Herbie or Chick, you look at the phrases and say, “I
see what they are doing.” After transcribing McCoy, the phrases just sit there, 
refusing to give up any secrets.

Bud Powell and Bill Evans use the conventional tonal system, so the great disciples
of Powell and Evans can subsume and hide those influences reasonably quickly. Appropriating
Tyner is harder. Tyner’s pitches seem to transcend conventional Western harmony.
It is a private language of sound; it is bells and drums in a pre-colonial village;
it is banging stones together at the first communal fire. Many students of Tyner—
even ones with big careers — still play undigested bits of Tyner’s language. Tommy
Flanagan and Barry Harris don’t really sound like Bud Powell; Steve Kuhn and Keith
Jarrett don’t really sound like Bill Evans. But John Hicks, Harold Mabern, Ronnie
Mathews, George Cables, Kenny Barron, and a host of other great jazz pianists can
have moments where they _really_ sound like McCoy Tyner.

Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, who share something of a quicksilver brilliance 
and were there chronologically and spatially in New York when all eyes were on Coltrane
and Tyner, figured Tyner out enough to let some of him go. Alice Coltrane also knew
just the right amount to take from Tyner, especially from the spiritual side of 
the message. Eventually gospel pianists would absorb Tyner’s harmonies for Sunday
morning church service, proving forever that Tyner’s innovations were authentic 
to the source.

The musicians know, the pianists especially know, but I wonder if the world at large
knows. The vast dimensions of John Coltrane’s contribution has challenged clear-
eyed perception of his pianist. This problem began right at the beginning, with 
Tyner’s voicings for _Africa/Brass_. The record label Impulse! did not credit Tyner
for creative input. Adding insult to injury, the jacket listed the pianist as McCoy
_Turner_.

Last month I went out to the Rutgers Jazz Institute to look at the reviews of Coltrane
and Tyner in _DownBeat_ during the early ’60s. It’s safe to say that the critics
missed the boat. The reviews of Coltrane records barely mention Tyner, and the reviews
of Tyner’s own discs generally avoid noting anything of real substance.

One of Tyner’s most exciting early solos was “Avalon” on _Meet the Jazztet_. Ira
Gitler wrote, “‘Avalon’ is the low point of the set.”

![fullsizeoutput_da0](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_da0.
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McCoy on “Avalon”:

John S. Wilson thought Tyner better than Freddie Hubbard or Hank Mobley on _Goin’
Up_, although only “within limited range.”

![fullsizeoutput_da1](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_da1.
jpeg?w=350&h=453&fit=350%2C453&resize=350%2C453)

In Pete Welding’s review of _My Favorite Things_, McCoy gets a brief mention for
his contribution of the title song. From where I sit, there’s no “My Favorite Things”
without Tyner’s completely original harmonic perspective.

![fullsizeoutput_da4](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_da4.
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In his review of _Olé,_ Richard B. Hadlock mis-identifies “Aisha” as a Coltrane 
ballad (it is by Tyner).

![fullsizeoutput_da6.jpeg](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/
fullsizeoutput_da6.jpeg?w=351&h=319&fit=351%2C319&resize=351%2C319)

In a long review of _Africa/Brass_, Martin Williams is severely unimpressed, although
he does think Tyner “plays a good solo.” (Again, all the horn voicings on the album
were given to Dolphy by Tyner.)

![fullsizeoutput_da2](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_da2.
jpeg?w=351&h=541&fit=351%2C541&resize=351%2C541)

Coltrane’s first live record at the Vanguard got a double review. Ira Gitler likes
Tyner more than Coltrane; Pete Welding doesn’t mention the pianist by name.

![fullsizeoutput_da7.jpeg](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/
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I personally regard the Coltrane studio version of “Soul Eyes” as a desert island
track. Don DeMichael did not agree.

![fullsizeoutput_da8](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_da81.
jpeg?w=351&h=375&fit=351%2C375&resize=351%2C375)

McCoy on “Soul Eyes”:

Coltrane generated a lot of argument and introspection among the critics of the 
day. William Mathieu (also a valuable musician) has an interesting take on _Live
at Birdland_.

![fullsizeoutput_db2](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_db2.
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As the Coltrane reviews continue, Tyner is mostly ignored as a generative force.(
Even Mathieu does not mention Tyner when reviewing _Crescent, _an LP that he gave
only 3 and half stars.)  It seems like the critics assumed that Coltrane told Tyner
what to play, but that’s simply not true. McCoy brought it all to the table. The
group couldn’t have had any other pianist and retained the sound. While Alice Coltrane
started as a bebop pianist —  and a great bebop pianist at that — she would eventually
have to take on the mysterious McCoy language as Tyner’s replacement in her husband’s
group.

Tyner’s contributions outside the Coltrane fold could also be downplayed, for example
in Leonard Feather’s review of Art Blakey’s _A Jazz Message_.

![fullsizeoutput_db1](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_db1.
jpeg?w=351&h=377&fit=351%2C377&resize=351%2C377)

For me, Tyner’s solo on “The Song of You” is sublime.

Most of Tyner’s own albums got fair to good reviews. However, not one of them describe
him as an innovator or a revolutionary.

Barbara Gardner on _Inception_.

![fullsizeoutput_da9](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_da9.
jpeg?w=482&h=485&fit=482%2C485&resize=482%2C485)

Don Nelsen on _Reaching Forth._

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Harvey Pekar on _Nights of Ballads and Blues_.

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John S. Wilson on _Live at Newport._

![fullsizeoutput_dae.jpeg](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/
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Pekar on _Today and Tomorrow_.

![fullsizeoutput_db3](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_db3.
jpeg?w=351&h=813&fit=351%2C813&resize=351%2C813)

DeMichael on _Plays Duke Ellington_.

![fullsizeoutput_db5](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/fullsizeoutput_db5.
jpeg?w=351&h=1285&fit=351%2C1285&resize=351%2C1285)

I couldn’t locate a review of _The Real McCoy,_ but the double review of Tyner’s
_Tender Moments_ and Herbie Hancock’s_ Speak Like a Child_ by Lawrence Kart is strikingly
unsympathetic to both.

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[⌊fullsizeoutput_cd5⌉⌊fullsizeoutput_cd5⌉[

Kart’s suggestion that Cecil Taylor threatens Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner with
irrelevancy typifies a certain trope of jazz criticism. (Even today, Cecil Taylor
can be used as way to complain about musicians who swing and play the blues.) In
my view there is no reason to pit musicians against each other. In 1967, all three
pianists were operating at an extraordinary high level, all making work that would
stand the test of time.

—

Maybe McCoy Tyner didn’t care about his coverage in _DownBeat_ during the 1960s,
I don’t know. But the story goes that Tyner was really down and out for a few years
at the end of that decade. If that’s true, the generally lackluster support given
Tyner by the major jazz magazine would have been part of the problem.

It was a hasty search through microfiche, but as far as I could locate, there was
only one good_ DB _article on McCoy Tyner, from 1963, a profile by Stanley Dance
called “Tyner Talk” that is exclusively quotes from the pianist.

> We talk a lot about freedom in Jazz, but there are underlying disciplines too.
> When you have the “discipline of religion, as I have, I think you can meet the
> demands of music and function better. There are still a lot of pressures in musicians’
> lives, and it is easy to understand why some fall by the wayside. But you have
> to strengthen yourself to meet those pressures. You can’t wait for them all to
> be removed from your environment.
> There are reasons for the pressures and problems. People will usually think of
> God at a time of tragedy but not when everything is running smoothly. But most
> musicians believe in God, because most of them are very sensitive individuals.
> When I first started in music I never realized how sensitive music is, nor how
> sensitive we are.
> My mother played a little piano, and she wanted us to take an interest in music.
> We had the choice between singing and piano lessons, so my brother and I both 
> took piano. I wasn’t too interested at first, but after a while I began to like
> it and devote most of my time to it. Although I didn’t study the classics extensively,
> I think I had a pretty good foundation.
> When I was about 16, I had my own jazz group. I had met another boy who had bought
> a set of drums, and then we added trombone, trumpet, and alto saxophone. The drummer,
> Garvin Masseaux, has been playing conga with Olatunji.
> I was mainly influenced by records at that time, because there wasn’t too much
> jazz on the radio. Bud Powell and his brother were living just around the corner
> from me in Philadelphia, but they didn’t have a piano in their apartment, and 
> Bud came to my mother’s house to play. I wasn’t familiar with his work and didn’t
> know who he was. It was hard to understand everything he was doing, but I liked
> it.
>  Judging from the records he made with Max Roach and Ray Brown, I think he
> had reached his prime then, and I learned quite a lot from him and his brother
> Richard. They were profound musicians, harmonically and in many other ways. Bud
> had so much taste and creative ability that I couldn’t help learning from him.
> He had worked opposite Art Tatum and had plenty of other opportunities to hear
> him, and Bud had been greatly influenced by Tatum. I know he had a lot of admiration
> for pianists who preceded Art, too, just as I have.
> Tatum had really become a virtuoso. His music always sounded so neat and compact.
> I never thought of it as being arranged, but rather as the result of his tremendous
> knowledge of the instrument. Anything he could hear he could play.
> After I graduated from high school, I worked days and played around home for a
> time. There were a lot of very good musicians in Philadelphia then and more clubs
> than there are now. I played with a lot of out-of-town musicians who were brought
> in as singles, and I worked in Calvin Massey’s band around Philadelphia. Calvin
> had a nice band. He’s a trumpet player, and he writes. Charlie Parker recorded
> his Fiesta.
> I was about 17 when I first worked with John Coltrane. He had left Miles Davis
> for a period, and he was a close friend of Calvin Massey, who introduced me to
> him. I was working with Calvin at the Red Rooster, and John was going in there
> for a week. He asked us if we wanted to work with him.
> After that, he would contact me whenever he came to Philly with Miles. I think
> he liked my playing, but we would also have long discussions on music, during 
> which he would sometimes sit down at the piano and play. He had a lot of ideas,
> and we were compatible. We saw eye to eye on so many things even at that time,
> and I could hear the direction he was going. I didn’t know what it would be like,
> or how involved it would be, but I could hear something in his playing that was
> beautiful, and we enjoyed working together.
> Benny Golson came to Philadelphia when I was about 20, and I played a concert 
> with him. He asked me to go to San Francisco with him, where we would pick up 
> a bassist and a drummer.
> Then the Jazztet was formed, and that was very good experience for me. The original
> group consisted of Art Farmer, Curtis Fuller, Addison Farmer, Dave Bailey, Benny,
> and myself. It was a very musicianly band, and it had a lot of possibilities, 
> but sometimes I felt there ought to have been more room allowed for improvisation.
> Eventually there was.
> After about six months with the Jazztet, I got another call from John. He was 
> forming his own group. I had a decision to make. I knew there was something with
> his group that I wanted to do, but yet the fellows in the Jazztet had been so 
> nice to me, and they had helped me quite a bit, musically and otherwise, that 
> I felt I owed something to them. I had to be honest with them and myself, and 
> in the end I decided the best thing to do was to go where I could be really happy,
> where I could contribute more and really do some good. So I went with John.
> I think I made the right move. I wasn’t concerned then with whether or not John’s
> group would be successful, for I feel that the majority of good listeners will
> always support good music.
> I know a lot of good groups are formed and disappear, but usually they break up
> because of personal differences. If the guys conducted themselves right, thought
> more about producing good music, and generally took care of business, then I believe
> they would stay together longer. Music has to be the first interest. More dollars
> will come later.
> It’s important, too, for a group to be composed of men — real, true men — who 
> will accept their responsibilities. I am proud to be part of an organization where
> each one is dedicated to the whole. And I really enjoy it.
> People sometimes say our music is experimental, but all I can answer is that every
> time you sit down to play, it should be an experience. There are no barriers in
> our rhythm section. Everyone plays his personal concept, and nobody tells anyone
> else what to do. It is surprisingly spontaneous, and there’s a lot of give and
> take, for we all listen carefully to one another. From playing together, you get
> to know one another so well musically that you can anticipate. We have an over-
> all different approach, and that is responsible for our original style. As compared
> with a lot of other groups, we feel differently about music. With us, whatever
> comes out—that’s it, at that moment! We definitely believe in the value of the
> spontaneous.
> So far as we are concerned, too, a lot depends on what John does. A rhythm section
> is supposed to support and inspire the soloist, and it is a very sensitive thing.
> How each one of us feels can determine so much, but when I come to solo I may 
> be inspired by what John has played and by the support Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison
> are giving me. It’s all too personal to analyze on paper, anymore than it’s possible
> to say why one person likes chocolate and another likes cookies.
> Sometimes, when John is soloing, I lay out completely.
> Something important is involved here, I think. The pianist tends to play chords
> that the soloist knows are coming up next anyway. Normally, all the pianist does
> is try to give him a little extra push in the accompaniment and possibly to suggest
> some new ideas. When the piano isn’t there, the soloist can concentrate purely
> on what he has in mind with fewer limitations or boundaries. Otherwise, what the
> pianist plays can attract his attention away from his original thought. So it 
> is all a matter of giving the soloist more freedom to explore harmonically. Nevertheless,
> there is a foundation and a point of return. We all know where we are working 
> from.
> You can establish your feeling in music so that the public recognizes it, but 
> you can also develop it within a recognizable framework. Sometimes people don’t
> want to hear the development. They only want to hear it as it was in the primary
> stages. “He isn’t playing the way he was,” they’ll say. “I don’t understand what
> he is doing.” But the roots are actually still there, and when the flower blooms
> the people may not accept it, though it’s all part of the same thing. Then their
> acceptance will depend on their getting more familiarity.
> That’s why I think there should be more good jazz on the radio — and at times 
> when the music can be exposed to a larger listening audience.
> I’ve often contemplated that word “jazz.” I believe early jazz came out of the
> churches, through the spirituals, which were a form of worship. Then there was
> the period of the blues, which were played in very different places. Back in those
> days “jazz” used to mean something else, and that’s one of the reasons, I think,
> why many people still look down on it now. Yet I believe the music itself is one
> of the most beautiful art forms that exist, but the word used to describe it is
> just not good enough.
> You are exposed to so much music today that you cannot always pinpoint influences.
> I know that when I used to listen to Max Roach’s band I was impressed by the harmonies
> Richard Powell used to play and by his use of the sustaining pedal on chords. 
> In fact, one of the strong points of his playing was his beautiful harmonic conception.
> I never copied what he did, but I certainly appreciated it.
> I may find myself playing a phrase from another musician, but I never consciously
> copy, Guys ask me sometimes how I do this or do that, but I don’t have any preconceived
> formula. You can almost subconsciously acquire technical devices, of course, like
> Richard Powell’s way of sustaining chords.
> One reason I have so much respect for the older pianists is that in their period
> there were so many different styles. There were many good musicians among them,
> and they knew their instrument, and it wasn’t so much a matter of copying one 
> another. Many of the younger musicians today involve themselves in a particular
> style instead of trying to learn the instrument, which I think is very important.
> I’m not saying they don’t know the instrument, but I think they make an error 
> in trying to duplicate another style rather than try to play the way they feel
> about things. I’ve been told that at one time everyone was trying to play like
> Earl Hines. That could have been good, provided you didn’t get hung up and limited
> to what he was able to do. I think another musician can show you the way, maybe
> inspire you, but I’ve never wanted to be an exact copy of anyone else. I’m 24,
> and I guess I’m still evolving. You can’t rush maturity. —**MCCOY TYNER AS TOLD
> TO STANLEY DANCE IN 1963**

My own quick notes on the early McCoy Tyner albums:

**Two tunes unreleased at the time**
 McCoy Tyner, piano; Steve Davis, bass; Elvin
Jones, drums October 1960 _Lazy Bird_ _In Your Own Sweet Way_

It was a marathon series of sessions for Atlantic that produced _My Favorite Things,
Coltrane’s Sound_, and _Coltrane Plays the Blue_s. The trio also tried out these
two tracks that first saw release in the 70s in a widely listened to anthology with
Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and Keith Jarrett. “Lazy Bird” is fast and exciting,“
In Your Own Sweet Way” is down the middle. Both have cute arrangements and personalized
chord progressions.

**McCoy Tyner Trio – Inception**
 McCoy Tyner, piano; Art Davis, bass; Elvin Jones,
drums January 1962 _Inception_ _Sunset_ _Effendi_ _Speak Low_ _There Is No Greater
Love_ _Blues For Gwen_

The first phrases of “Inception” recall hard bop, something like “Jordu.” “Effendi”
delivers Coltrane-era modality. The standards are more in a Red Garland kind of 
zone. Everything is played to perfection; all in all, a stunning debut disc. It’s
a particularly good showing for Elvin Jones as well.

**McCoy Tyner Trio – Reaching Fourth**
 McCoy Tyner, piano; Henry Grimes, bass; 
Roy Haynes, drums November 1962 _Reaching Fourth_ _Goodbye_ _Blues Back_ _Have You
Met Miss Jones_ _Old Devil Moon_ _Theme For Ernie_

A different kind of feel ensues with the presence of Roy Haynes and Henry Grimes.
The standards are creatively reharmonized. Certainly no one else has played this
version of “Have You Met Miss Jones.”

I love the pile of sheet music on the piano in the pictures of Coltrane, Tyner, 
and Johnny Hartman together.

![coltrane hartman tyner](https://ethaniversondotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/
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John Coltrane adored the American Songbook; so did McCoy Tyner. Tyner’s arrangements
of standards always have surprising details.

Tyner was starting to make a point of always including a blues on his records as
well.

**McCoy Tyner – Nights Of Ballads & Blues**
 McCoy Tyner, piano; Steve Davis, bass;
Lex Humphries, drums March 1963 _Star Eyes_ _We’ll Be Together Again_ _‘Round Midnight_
_Days Of Wine And Roses_ _Blue Monk_ _Satin Doll_ _For Heaven’s Sake_ _Groove Waltz_

This is a “local” rhythm team if there ever was one. Steve Davis was Tyner’s brother-
in-law and Lex Humphries was a Philadelphia cat who also played with Tyner in the
Jazztet. _Nights Of Ballads & Blues_ is a mellow disc, almost a Red Garland album.
Apparently Impulse! and the pianist are working together to pose Tyner as a more
accessible artist than his label-mate John Coltrane. For me the highlight is “Star
Eyes.”

**McCoy Tyner – Live At Newport**
 Clark Terry, trumpet; Charlie Mariano, alto sax;
McCoy Tyner, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Mickey Roker, drums July 1963 _Monk’s Blues_
_All Of You_ _Woody’n You_ _My Funny Valentine_ _Newport Romp_

A jam session of trio and quintet. Mickey Roker and Bob Cranshaw are smoking, so
is everybody else. Charlie Mariano is especially good on “My Funny Valentine,” every
member brings it to the max for “Newport Romp.” This is the  only time McCoy is 
heard playing “Woody’n You,” as least in this era.

**McCoy Tyner – Today And Tomorrow**
 McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; 
Tootie Heath, drums June 1963 _Autumn Leaves_ _Five Spot After Dark_ _A Night In
Tunisia_ _You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To_ _When Sunny Gets Blue_ _Flapstick Blues_
Thad Jones, trumpet; Frank Strozier, alto sax; John Gilmore, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner,
piano; Butch Warren, bass; Elvin Jones, drums February 1964 _Contemporary Focus_
_Three Flowers_ _T ‘n A Blues_

A full standards date with another Philadelphia rhythm section was cut in half and
joined with three horn pieces recorded a year later. On CD you can hear the complete
set of tracks. It’s all essential McCoy, unquestionably the finest of his dates 
for Impulse! as a leader. Thad Jones stuns on “Contemporary Focus,” which also has
memorable statements by John Gilmore and Frank Strozier. Butch Warren proves he 
can hang with McCoy and Elvin. In a  rare and pleasing moment, it sounds like Gilmore
is quite confused by the changes of “Three Flowers.” From the trio, Tootie Heath
stays on brushes throughout.  “A Night in Tunisia” offers a soaring piano statement.

**McCoy Tyner Plays Ellington**
 McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; Elvin
Jones, drums; Johnny Pacheco, Willie Rodriguez, Latin percussion December 1964 _It
Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)_ _I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)_
_Mr. Gentle And Mr. Cool_ _Gypsy Without A Song_ _Solitude_ _Caravan_ _Duke’s Place_
_Searchin’_ _Satin Doll_

While generally not in sympathy with the reviews republished above, I do agree with
DeMichael that “Solitude” is the standout track from this slightly underwhelming
record. Nothing is wrong, exactly, but it does seem like a producer-driven project:
Ellington was currently being promoted on several Impulse! dates including wonderful
collaborations with Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins.

One of the odder bits of jazz trivia: McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones
went out to Rudy Van Gelder’s New Jersey studio on December 8, 1964 to record four
conservative takes of Ellington with two percussionists. The next morning Tyner 
recorded with Milt Jackson in New York. Then, in the evening of December 9, Tyner,
Garrison, and Jones went back out to Van Gelder’s and recorded _A Love Supreme_with
John Coltrane.

**McCoy Tyner – The Real McCoy**
 Joe Henderson, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; 
Ron Carter, bass; Elvin Jones, drums April 1967 _Passion Dance_ _Contemplation_ 
_Four By Five_ _Search For Peace_ _Blues On The Corner_

After leaving Coltrane, Tyner didn’t have anything more to do with Impulse!. Among
Alfred Lion’s last signings to Blue Note was Tyner. Tyner’s first Blue Note has 
proven to be one of the greatest jazz LPs in history. I can’t believe anyone reading
this far into a DTM deep dive wouldn’t know _The Real McCoy_ already, but, just 
in case: This is the one. A masterpiece from top to bottom, a band of giants, everyone
on the top of their game, and five of Tyner’s most indelible themes.

It’s the same configuration as the Coltrane quartet, but there’s a big difference
in the orchestration. Tyner never doubled the melody with Coltrane, with one minor
exception, the 12-tone line of “Miles’ Mode.” On _The Real McCoy_ Tyner doubles 
Joe Henderson during every head.

**McCoy Tyner – Tender Moments**
 Lee Morgan, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone;
Bob Northern, French horn; Howard Johnson, tuba; James Spaulding, alto sax, flute;
Bennie Maupin, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; Herbie Lewis, bass; Joe Chambers, 
drums December 1967 _Mode To John_ _The High Priest_ _Man From Tanganyika_ _Utopia_
_All My Yesterdays_ _Lee Plus Three_

_Tender Moments_ prefigures the many large Tyner projects of the 1970s and 1980s,
when Tyner was at last one of the biggest names in the jazz industry. It’s a wonderful
disc but they did it all in one day, and here and there the ensembles are a little
ragged. “Utopia” is a memorable composition and Joe Chambers is the perfect drummer
for the even-eighth grooves. It’s pure bliss when Lee Morgan plays a quartet blues
with the rhythm section at the end.

**McCoy Tyner – Time For Tyner**
 Bobby Hutcherson, vibes; McCoy Tyner, piano; Herbie
Lewis, bass; Freddie Waits, drums. Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, May 
17, 1968 _Little Madimba_ _May Street_ _I Didn’t Know What Time It Was_ _Afrika 
Village_ _The Surrey With The Fringe On Top_ _I’ve Grown Accustomed To Your Face_

The quartet tracks with Bobby Hutcherson are good but the standout track is the 
trio “The Surrey With the Fringe on Top,” which is possibly Tyner’s greatest ever
recording of a standard. Herbie Lewis and Freddie Waits help Tyner swing out and
about, transforming the slender Rodgers and Hammerstein material into a vibrating
column of funky and abstract sound. There’s nothing like it, no one else has come
close to playing this way.  It’s the perfect conclusion to Tyner’s early revolutionary
period.

Billy Hart told me when he frequently went to see the Coltrane quartet, he loved
watching McCoy Tyner play better and better, especially on “Mr. P.C.” and “Impressions.”

At one point I trimmed out a fair number of McCoy Tyner solos live with Coltrane
on those two tunes. It’s amazing how much Tyner really is improvising within the
confines of an authentic language.

 

![Картинки по запросу McCoy Tyner](https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Mccoy-tyner-1350319722.jpg)

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