McCoy Tyner

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.

In the summer of 2005, Tyner joined forces with the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York and became the first client of Blue Note Management. That summer, Tyner began work on some unique projects, including performances with tap-dancer Savion Glover and the development of the Impulse! Septet, featuring his trio with some of today’s top hornmen.

Tyner’s partnership with the Blue Note has led to the formation of his own record label, aptly titled McCoy Tyner Music. The label is a subsidiary of the Blue Note’s In-House record label, Half Note Records. The label launched on September 11, 2007, upon the release of Tyner’s latest CD, “Quartet” featuring Joe Lovano, Christian McBride, and Jeff “Tain” Watts. Recorded live on New Year’s Eve 2006, the album features a working band at its finest with some of today’s “legends in training”. Additionally, the record shows that Tyner, who now carries the torch as the only surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet, is still at the top of his game as a composer, performer, and bandleader.

In review of Tyner’s latest album “Quartet,” Thomas Conrad of JazzTimes wrote “‘Quartet’ succeeds not only because everyone plays so well, but also because they play so well together. The pairing of Tyner and Lovano is synergistic. The McBride/Watts rhythm section, for intelligent propulsion, is state-of-the-art. ‘Quartet’ succeeds once more because of its excellent sonic quality. It was recorded by engineer Phil Edwards at Yoshi’s in Oakland, Calif., over New Year’s Eve weekend 2006. Almost always, even the best-sounding jazz albums require you to make a choice. You can have the visceral in-the-moment reality of a live recording, or the full bandwidth resolution of a studio session. This one has both.”

McCoy Tyner’s second release for the McCoy Tyner Music label titled GUITARS is scheduled for a September 23, 2008 release. The recording features the stellar rhythm section of Tyner, Ron Carter, and Jack DeJohnette with four modern guitarists (and one banjo) of our time: Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, and Bela Fleck. The package will be a CD/DVD featuring state-of-the-art technology that allows the viewer to manually choose which musician(s) they would like to view in the studio at any time during each track. In 2009, Tyner will release his third recording for McCoy Tyner Music, a solo piano performance recorded live in San Francisco during the summer of 2007.

Tyner has always expanded his vision of the musical landscape and incorporated new elements, whether from distant continents or diverse musical influences. More recently he has arranged for big bands, employed string arrangements, and even reinterpreted popular music. Today, Tyner has released nearly 80 albums under his name, earned four Grammys and was awarded Jazz Master from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002. He continues to leave his mark on generations of improvisers, and yet remains a disarmingly modest and spiritually directed man.
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McCoy Tyner / Joe Henderson: Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs'

Read "Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs'" reviewed by Joshua Weiner

by Joshua Weiner
November 27, 2024

How does one go about nominating Zev Feldman for a Nobel Peace Prize? Time and again, the intrepid “Jazz Detective" tracks down unknown, unheard, un-even-hoped-for sonic artifacts, painstakingly brushes away the audio dust and grime, and puts us front and center at events that rewrite the history of jazz. Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' another Feldman's project, in collaboration with Blue Note President Don Was, is quite possibly his greatest, a double album of such excitement, beauty, and power ...

Radio & Podcasts

McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Sara Serpa and Altus

by Hobart Taylor
November 13, 2024

Blue Note unearths historic recordings from jazz giants McCoy Tyner and Joe Henderson and we feature new music from Sara Serpa and Bryan Lynch.Playlist Meshell Ndegeocello" Tsunami Rising" from No More Water The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note) 0:00 Host Speaks 8:04 Meshell Ndegeocello “On The Mountain" No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note) 9:03 Meshell Ndegeocello “Baldwin Manifesto 1" No More Water : The Gospel of James Baldwin (Blue Note) 15:02 Derek Bermel ...

Album Review

McCoy Tyner / Joe Henderson: Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs'

Read "Forces Of Nature: Live At Slugs'" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
November 10, 2024

When recordings like Forces of Nature: Live at Slugs' seemingly falls from yonder jazz sky, we must stop to thank those swinging stars above for our grand fortune. Because despite all our flaws--a broken politic, a poisoned planet, constant wartime bickering--we are a fortunate, if mostly undeserving, race of peculiarities. That becomes especially apparent when random, instantaneous works of art and human affinity like this grace our path. Located at 242 East 3rd Street between Avenue B and ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Sun Ship

Read "Sun Ship" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 14, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

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

by Mike Jurkovic
July 14, 2023

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 ...

Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

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

by Chris May
July 7, 2023

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 ...

Liner Notes

John Coltrane: Song Of Praise: New York 1965 Revisited

by Mark Corroto
January 18, 2023

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 ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci
December 11, 2022

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

Recording

McCoy Tyner and Freddie Hubbard, 1986

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 21, 2022

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. ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci
December 11, 2021

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

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci
December 11, 2020

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

Video / DVD

Video: McCoy Tyner, 1986

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
March 10, 2020

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 ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci
December 11, 2019

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.

Place our Musician of ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci
December 11, 2018

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.

Place our Musician of ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci
December 11, 2017

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.

Place our Musician of ...
read more

Recording

McCoy Tyner: Ballads & Blues

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 18, 2017

Pianist McCoy Tyner is best known for being a member of the John Coltrane Quartet beginning in 1960. During those years, Tyner re-invented the piano as a highly percussive, stirring instrument that churned the waters for Coltrane's abstraction and spiritual solos. For some strange reason, in late 1962 and the first half of 1963, Tyner was commissioned by producer Bob Thiele to record more straightforward jazz albums as a leader. These albums included Reaching Fourth, Today and Tomorrow and McCoy ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: McCoy Tyner

Source: Michael Ricci
December 11, 2016

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.

Place our Musician of ...
read more

Recent Releases

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Classic Bobby Hutcherson Blue Note Sessions 1963 – 1970 by Bobby Hutcherson

McCoy Tyner

Instrument: Piano
Born: December 11, 1938
Died: March 6, 2020