Latest Release
- NOV 22, 2024
- 5 Songs
- Night of Ballads and Blues · 1963
- Today and Tomorrow · 1963
- The Real McCoy · 1967
- The Real McCoy · 1967
- Night of Ballads and Blues · 1963
- Night of Ballads and Blues · 1963
- The Real McCoy · 1967
- McCoy Tyner Plays Ellington · 1965
- Night of Ballads and Blues · 1963
- Night of Ballads and Blues · 1963
Essential Albums
- After six albums as a leader for Impulse!, pianist McCoy Tyner made the move to Blue Note in 1967 with The Real McCoy, an iconic jazz document of the era and Tyner’s first record of all-original material. It was Tyner’s extensive work on Impulse! with the John Coltrane Quartet that had rocketed him to prominence. Here he was, two years after leaving Coltrane, recording roughly three months before the tenor giant’s untimely death. A new post-Coltrane era was in the offing. Yet The Real McCoy found Tyner in the company of Coltrane drummer and bandmate Elvin Jones. It’s in the slowly churning swing of “Contemplation” that we hear one of the purest examples of an Elvin Jones feel—a supple, elastic groove that has proven timelessly influential. The closing “Blues on the Corner,” one of Tyner’s catchiest and most characteristic melodies, is another Jones vehicle for the ages. On bass, enlisted from the ranks of the Miles Davis Quintet, is Ron Carter in superb form. And on tenor sax is one of Coltrane’s preeminent heirs on the horn, Joe Henderson, entirely at home in Tyner’s harmonic language and aesthetic, poised and expressive on a minor-key ballad like “Search for Peace,” swinging with fury on the uptempo “Passion Dance” and “Four by Five.” The overall chemistry and invention in this lineup was off the charts, as were Tyner’s pianistic acuity and drive.
Artist Playlists
- The post-bop pianist and Coltrane bandmate was a force for jazz innovation.
- Rich dialogues with Coltrane and brisk, swinging side work.
- Coltrane's favorite pianist had the whole world under his hands.
Compilations
- 1987
Appears On
- Elvin Jones & Jimmy Garrison
About McCoy Tyner
Pianist/composer McCoy Tyner was one of the key architects of post-bop jazz, expanding the genre’s parameters as a member of John Coltrane’s band and on his own. Born in Philadelphia in 1938, he learned piano as a teen and became a mainstay at Philly jazz clubs in the ’50s. By 1960 he was living in New York, working first with Benny Golson and Art Farmer’s Jazztet and then with Coltrane, becoming part of the latter’s legendary quartet with bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones. Together they created revolutionary masterpieces like 1964’s Crescent and 1965’s A Love Supreme, with Tyner’s expansive harmonic approach as the crucial complement to Coltrane’s visionary outside-the-lines style. Tyner had released his own debut album in 1962, but 1967’s The Real McCoy, his first for Blue Note, marked a new beginning, as he applied the concepts he’d created alongside Coltrane (whose band he left in ’65) to different contexts. Tyner began building a new post-bop language, sometimes incorporating international influences and modalities. Honored with five Grammys and an NEA Jazz Master designation, Tyner continued working into the late 2010s, passing away in 2020 at age 81.
- FROM
- Philadelphia, PA, United States
- BORN
- December 11, 1938
- GENRE
- Jazz