McCoy Tyner

I thought I heard multiple tricks!

Ha, yeah exactly

Back in March I reviewed all 19 albums he recorded in the 1970s, first on Blue Note and then on Milestone:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

damn, good runthrough, this might be what finally gets me into '70s tyner

Trident rules super hard

Tyner played with a ton of great musicians and like many of his era in jazz, there are other great appearances as a sideman. The couple of mid 60s records he did with Joe Henderson are worth checking out, as the tunes have a different groove than the Coltrane band.

thanks for that link phil, love the few 70s mccoy albums i own and am always up for more

"Trident" and "Fly To The Wind" : two of my favorite Sunday morning back-to-back listens

Fly With The Wind
I actually used to put that title track on mix tapes for people when I was a teen. I'd completely forgotten though.. need to go give it a listen

Song Of The New World is incredible as well, probably my fave of his 70's period.

I haven't heard much of Tyner's Impulse stuff as a leader, but his BN run is good to great and his Milestone run is nothing short of incredible. I think having a sympathetic, creative producer in Orrin Keepnews did a lot toward keeping him sounding fresh over a nearly a decade of two releases a year.

Fly With The Wind

OMG thank you guys so much for recommending this. Instant favorite.

still think Passion Reverence Transcendence: The Music of McCoy Tyner by Benito Gonzalez is really excellent, so uplifting.

good god do not scare me with this revive like that

I just heard Tender Moments for the first time the other day. Basically Tyner with Lee Morgan's band right? Great stuff, but why expect anything else? His standard of quality over the years was amazingly high.

good god do not scare me with this revive like that

Seriously.

And yeah, Tender Moments is amazing. Rarely has an album so totally failed to live up to its title. That thing smokes.

saw this revive and felt sick to my stomach

will check the benito

Basically whenever I'm in a record shop I check if they have any McCoy Tyner, and if I don't have it I buy it, and I'm never disappointed

Not to mention he’s usually light on the wallet

RIP to the great one. What a career, what music.

Ugh. RIP

oh man no. RIP

damn

Whenever I dip back into 70s prog and fusion, I hope it will sound this elegant and catchy, but it's too high a bar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZIXDTH-sLA

man there was no one on earth like this guy

Guy in WKCR just switched over in the middle of Elvin Live at the Lighthouse to a McCoy-led project featuring Elvin and Alice Coltrane.

After thirty seconds of silence of course

Just got into his catalogue not too long and now he's gone. Damn damn damn. RIP

Stack those fourths til you get all the way up to heaven

Extensions

Love this footage of Tyner with Roland Kirk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiI2ZHmxPPo

Check the rollneck!

First there is his melodic inventiveness and along with that the clarity of his ideas. He also gets a very personal sound from his instrument. In addition, McCoy has an exceptionally well developed sense of form, both as a soloist and accompanist. Invariably, in our group, he will take a tune and build his own structure for it. He is always looking for the most personal way of expressing himself. And finally, McCoy has taste. He can take anything, no matter how weird, and make it sound beautiful.

Coltrane from the notes on his Inception lp.

Inception is the only one I own, bought at random. one of those record I'm always in the mood to listen to

I have this 3CD Mosaic box from 2007 that gathers up Expansions, Extensions (the one with Alice Coltrane), Asante and Cosmos. And then I have digital copies a bunch more. I interviewed him once, in 2008 or so, when he made the album Guitars; it was a very awkward encounter, because he really didn't like talking about his work. I went out of my way to not go the "so tell me about John Coltrane!" route, but he just wasn't into it.

RIP

I love the front cover of Sahara, and the track Rebirth is as fire as anything he ever recorded:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDoGMQMl77A&list=PL5A83E4A2F654F95B&index=5&t=0s

I love both his 60's and 70's period, not familiar with his 80's + beyond period, apart that rather lovely duo he did with Stephane Grappelli in '90.

oh boy

Song of the New World as well, what an album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWYWgda5f0I

seeing this performance of 'my favourite things' was such a mind-opener when i first encountered it - not just mccoy obv, but those rumbling clouds of sound were completely soul-stirring for me and the thing i think about most when i hear him play

I found the story I wrote on him in 2009, based on the interview I mentioned above; here's a link for anyone interested.

Damn, knew it was coming eventually. A force of nature, it's almost wild to think of him and Elvin in the same rhythm section, I wonder who pushed who further.

I went back through his records a few months ago now that they're all on Spotify (and used to be SO hard to find), so many underrated gems.

Legend. You listen to a bit of jazz piano and McCoy Tyner definitely had a singular sound. That Coltrane quartet had such a sympathetic nature, there are moments where John leads and there were parts when Elvin pushed but how Tyner would react to Trane in how he placed those chords sometimes in accompaniment was literally the bit that seemed to take the intensity over the top and raise the hairs on the back of the neck for listeners on those sax solos. I suppose some of it is similar to those extended intervals that Bill Evans and other would use, but Tyner would have such a unique way of rhythmically playing those chords. I'd say how how soloed with chords is a big part of that unique sound.

I've not heard but a sliver of Tyner's total recorded output, but I got to figure anything he ever played upon is worth hearing.

fucking Trident slays me every single time
Rip

Sama Layuca was another top album as well.

blasting Sama now!

I love his whole Milestone run, and so did Orrin Keepnews, who recorded MT more than anyone else. What a body of work.

farewell to the master, RIP

the greatest — The Real McCoy is one of those front-to-back classic albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqDhFyXAvlg
RIP

Ah man, RIP. This version was my go-to McCoy jam when I first heard him in my twenties, kind of still is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xey_OHwO8s0

Worth noting from the comments:

Rayy‘s Musikladen
5 years ago
Most energetic version ever, featuring The Real McCoy with an epic piano solo and Alphonse's drum 'carpet' in best Elvin Jones tradition. What a pity that the latter switched to mediocre fusion music later on.

Alphonse Mouzon
4 years ago
+octopus34 Thanks so much - but I wouldn't call my 2011 Top Ten all-star straight-ahead jazz CD "ANGEL FACE" mediocre fusion http://www.tenaciousrecords.comAngel_Face.html or my classic jazz-fusion album/CD "MIND TRANSPLANT".

:(

RIP