Jazz pianist for John Coltrane’s quartet has died at 81. A terrific, talented, and ground-breaking pianist.
He was a genius. I love Coltrane but MT really made My Favorite Things a compelling piece through his powerful rhythmic playing rather than a meandering journey to nowhere.
Bummer! I sat next to him as he played in 1989 at the Jazz Showcase, back when it was in the lobby of Chicago’s Blackstone Hotel. Such a fluid, tasteful, innovative yet melodic improviser, and just the right accompaniment to Coltrane (but did plenty on his own in the decades after Coltrane’s death).
Heard him at college in 1979 during the “superstar quartet” tour with Sonny Rollins, Ron Carter, and Elvin Jones. I’m not a huge fan of his wall-of-sound style — only own one of his solo albums — but I completely concur with “terrific, talented, and ground-breaking.”
We used to have a great venue in North Texas called Caravan of Dreams and had a few glory years where their booking person brought in great acts like Ahmad Jamal and Wynton Marsalis. I saw McCoy Tyner there in a great intimate setting and still consider it one of my top 5 concerts ever.
I’ll dig out my *Nights of Ballads & Blues *album in his honor tonight
McCoy Tyner has always been my paramount inspiration, the artist I’ve modeled my own piano ventures after. I felt I intuitively understood what he was doing better than any other jazz pianist and was moved to emulate him. He rocked those quartal chords like nobody else since Béla Bartók. His loss is incalculable, devastating. I’m just thankful he lived a long life and brought such brilliant music to the world all throughout.
Here’s an extremely rare live performance of A Love Supreme. Tyner’s extraordinary solo in “Resolution” runs from 7:52 to 12:52. You can see in this the features that inspired me so much: playing every note off the beat, complex chords that push tonality beyond its limits, blues-tinged modal melodies, fascinating interplay with Jimmy Garrison on the bass, and the way he constructs his solo from ever-evolving rhythmic cells.