McCoy Tyner

*which coming from me in a jazz context is not so negative.

Gilmore sounds a bit like Trane on that date, as it is much more early 60s bop than Arkestra. It might be that Trane sounds a bit like Gilmore as I guess they practiced together and was an influence around that same time. They both have a big tenor tone. If you like some of Coltrane's records on Atlantic like "Coltrane's Sound", it is a similar timeperiod and sound, but "Today and Tomorrow" doesn't have a tune as good and memorable as Equinox.

yeah he breathes cosmic fire into this hot hard-bop date. he's also great on Joe Henderson's slighty spacier Inner Urge.

definitely go for extensions, expansions, whatever. CLASSIC!!!!

The sleeper in the bunch is 1978's "Together" album. Highly recommended. I have had a lot of success in telling people about this album. Always very positive reactions. Hope you like it.

Oh, fuck yes. This was the first Henderson I heard, and it kinda ruined him for me. I've enjoyed other stuff, but he rarely hits like he does on this one.
As for Tyner, I've been loving Sama Layuca lately. Round, anthemic, good.

Lee Morgan Tom Cat
Bobby Hutcherson Stick-Up!

Anyways, Sahara was a revelation. And yeah, Extensions (with the faux-"National Geographic" cover) is a good'un too.

Finally listening to Enlightenment now and...............................................wow.

just fucking DESTRUCTIVE

tell me they will play this on the ship when we flee the apocalypse and go into -SPACE-

i have "inception", got a super duper clean 80s fantasy vinyl reissue...anyway it is rad as fuk

i've been looking for enlightment for years after hearing a couple cuts.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

0rangeandblackspines.w0rdpress.com

with o's instead of 0's

why didn't i think of that

oh wait, i did look for that when i found that site and it wasn't there.

apparently enlightment wasn't on impulse.

wtf i thought that was where i found it last night

will check my history when i get home and link u proper

oh here it is for all mccoy tyner stans everywhere

http://jazz20.bloringa.net/post-1088868.html

thanks bro

i remember alphonse mouzon being sick on this

more mainstream-y by definition, but i really like McCoy's Ellington album. Nice light touch, swinging feel. If I'm not mistaken, the album was recorded same day (or maybe week?) as Love Supreme, which is just ridiculous. Haven't heard a lot of his earlier Impulse records ... Or his 70s stuff, actually. Need to get on that!

and of course, it has to be said that the guy's solo on "my favorite things" is like top ten best moments in music ever.

assumed this'd been revived for the new one, 'guitars', with tyner's trio and Derek Trucks, Bela Fleck, Bill Frisell, John Scofield, Marc Ribot. (Although not, sadly, all at the same time.) Trailer for it: fairly cool.

Would quite like to have a full CD of McCoy and Marc playing free — the two minutes of it on the site trailer are really pretty and affecting, and you have to wonder where else they could take it. The first track on the album is a minute and a half long improvisation with the two of them; then there's a full band thing with Ribot again which does fall into the presumable trap of just not sounding quite comfortable, but not uncomfortable in an interesting way ...

(Like, Marc's free playing with McCoy has e-bow and muted scrapy noises — playing in a taking-turns-playing-solos context he can't do so much of that stuff — but still plays with a rock-band sounding level of distortion etc., but less productively.

DeJohnette is drumming WAY loud.)

PLEASE DON'T USE THE WAH PEDAL, MARC

I can't really stomach any of those guys except Ribot

I really can't supply an informed opinion on any of them, tbh

The first Fleck track (technically not involving guitar) is really great — droney banjo that sounds vaguely like something I have heard before — possibly serpent power?

Scofield on 'Mr P.C.' is fairly okay.

I also haven't liked anything new from Tyner in a long time.

Erm, I mean I guess I haven't liked anything new from Tyner since I've been listening to jazz. I wasn't even born when his best records came out.

picked up 'Trident' on vinyl for cheap over the weekend, such a great record. the first track sounds like a vamp for a pop song but still totally works with their style.

still don't have a copy of 'Enlightment'. :/

excited because there is a cheap-ish copy of enlightenment near work (i think) and i checked this thread to see if it was worth getting and i am totally picking it up after work (if that is the album i saw in the racks) (and if it is still there)

got inner voices for £4 the other day at flashback and am really liking it, even if its an unusual record for him. reminds me a bit of alice coltrane's om supreme, with all the vocals and harmonies, which is my favourite alice track of all

good late night listening is the One on One album (not the UKIP mano a mano version obv :p) with Stephane Grappelli, so elegant and beautiful.

I've been listening to a ton of Tyner recently. His Milestone run is exceptional, and the records are generally cheap and plentiful.
Trident, Sama Luyaca, Focal Point are all still really, really good.

thanks for the reminder, I have Sahara and an Impulse best-of 2LP but yeah those Milestone releases are cheap and good

Funnily enough I don't think a whole lot of his Impulse releases. They're extremely tame compared to what Coltrane got out of him. Still he more than made up for it later. Keepnews was a good partner for him in terms of keeping the record concepts fresh without getting too gimmicky.

I was thinking it would be great if there was a box set of his Milestone albums (the Joe Henderson Milestone box is fucking fantastic) but there are 19 of them. Insane.

I totally love his impulse albums, Inception and the plays Duke Ellington one are classic!

I haven't dug into his Impulse catalog, but I love his Blue Note stuff, especially Extensions, The Real McCoy, and Tender Moments, which you'd probably expect to be a trio ballad date 'cause of it's title, but it's actually a kick-ass nonet album with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, Bob Northern (aka Brother Ah) on French horn, Howard Johnson on tuba, James Spaulding on alto sax and flute, Bennie Maupin on tenor sax, Herbie Lewis on bass, and Joe Chambers on drums.

Trident is an incredible album, my favorite of the six or seven tyners I know

Enlightenment pretty sick too

I picked Trident up by chance a while back and it's become a favorite. Celeste & harpsichord! At the same time! Not to mention a reunion with Elvin Jones.

Over on the music to get sober to topic, we had a small McCoy Tyner discussion going. I've only three of his leader albums: The Real McCoy, Enlightenment, and Supertrios. Enlightenment is, far and away, the best of them. I've always been really intimidated by the size of his catalogue as a leader, so I've stuck with those three for years.

just listen to it once earlier, but the latest Benito Gonzalez lp: Passion Reverence Transcendence - The Music of McCoy Tyner sounded rather good.

thread bump of fear

but yeah one day i need to actually properly dig into his catalogue, there's a lot of it and i haven't heard anything bad yet

He looks too healthy and busy to die yet, famous last words.

I know a guy who hates Benito, says he a one trick pony, but I think he’s great.

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

Rest in peace. You gave us such beauty.

alphonse is right, Mind Transplant is a ripper

listening to enlightenment this morning and feeling like i'm at the center of an infinite spiral

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnQJsrUYb8Q

^This version particularly good. Nate Chinen embedded it in his obit here: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/06/812940062/mccoy-tyner-groundbreaking-pianist-of-20th-century-jazz-dies-at-81

Such beautiful music. 'Extensions' and 'Sahara' are probably my favourites, but I'd never listened to 'Enlightenment' till this morning so what do I know.

Been digging into Tyner some lately and have spent some time with Atlantis — straight fire, like a damn freight train.

Was listening to Alice Coltrane's Huntington Ashram tonight, and some of the piano later on the album really reminded me of McCoy. Did they ever collaborate?

Yeah; she's on his album Extensions.

Ah! I only have mp3s of that one [and thus no sleevenotes] but it's one of my favourites of his

Love this set, for the music, but also for the audience shots of blissed out mid-70s Europeans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrZkbSeyF6M

Amazing - thanks for sharing

RIP Juini Booth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P7mPNvwMYM

RIP, but also yes, I love this particular band and it's great to see what Alphonse Mouzon is actually doing. Those 90' cymbals and perfectly flat drums!