McCoy Tyner

Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938 – March 6, 2020) was an American jazz pianist known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet and a long solo career. Copied by many others, he was a NEA Jazz Master and a five-time Grammy winner. Committed to acoustic instrumentation, he was one of the most recognizable and most influential pianists in jazz history.

Early life and family

Tyner was born in Philadelphia as the oldest of three children of Jarvis and Beatrice Tyner (Stevenson). He was encouraged to study piano by his mother. He began studying the piano at age 13 and within two years music had become the focal point in his life. He studied at West Philadelphia Music School and later at the Granoff School of Music.

When he was 17, he converted to Islam through the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and changed his name to Sulieman Saud. Tyner played professionally in Philadelphia becoming part of its modern jazz scene. His neighbors in the city included musicians Richie Powell and Bud Powell.

Career

In 1960, Tyner joined The Jazztet led by Benny Golson and Art Farmer. Six months later, he joined the quartet of John Coltrane that included Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. He worked with the band during its extended run at the Jazz Gallery, replacing Steve Kuhn (Coltrane had known Tyner for a while in Philadelphia, and performed one of the pianist's compositions, "The Believer", as early as 1958). He played on Coltrane's My Favorite Things (1961) for Atlantic. The band toured almost non-stop between 1961 and 1965, recording the albums Coltrane "Live" at the Village Vanguard (1962), Ballads (1963), Live at Birdland (1964), Crescent (1964), A Love Supreme (1964), and The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (1965), all for Impulse!.

While in Coltrane's group, he recorded albums as a leader in a piano trio. He also appeared as a sideman on many Blue Note albums of the 1960s, although he was often credited as "etc." on the cover of these albums to respect his contract with Impulse!.

Post-Coltrane

His involvement with Coltrane came to an end in 1965. Coltrane's music was becoming much more atonal and free; he had also augmented his quartet with percussion players who threatened to drown out both Tyner and Jones: "I didn't see myself making any contribution to that music... All I could hear was a lot of noise. I didn't have any feeling for the music, and when I don't have feelings, I don't play". In 1966, Tyner rehearsed with a new trio and embarked on a career as a bandleader.

After leaving Coltrane's group, Tyner produced a series of post-bop albums released by Blue Note from 1967 to 1970. These included The Real McCoy (1967), Tender Moments (1967), Time for Tyner (1968), Expansions (1968) and Extensions (1970). He signed with Milestone and recorded Sahara (1972), Enlightenment (1973), and Fly with the Wind (1976), which included flautist Hubert Laws, drummer Billy Cobham, and a string orchestra.

His music for Blue Note and Milestone often took the music of the Coltrane quartet as a starting point. Tyner also incorporated African and East Asian elements in his music. On Sahara he played koto in addition to piano, flute, and percussion. These albums have been cited as examples of innovative jazz from the 1970s that was neither fusion nor free jazz. On Trident (1975) Tyner played theharpsichord and celeste, instruments heard rarely in jazz.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Tyner worked in a trio that included Avery Sharpe on bass and Louis Hayes, then Aaron Scott, on drums. He made solo albums for Blue Note, starting with Revelations (1988) and culminating in Soliloquy (1991). After signing with Telarc, he recorded with several trios that included Charnett Moffett on bass and Al Foster on drums. In 2008, he toured with a quartet of Gary Bartz, Gerald L. Cannon, and Eric Gravatt.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed McCoy Tyner among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

On March 6, 2020, Tyner died at his home in northern New Jersey, at the age of 81. No other details were provided.

He was survived by his wife, Aisha Tyner, his son, Nurudeen, known as Deen, his brother and sister, Jarvis Tyner and Gwendolyn-Yvette Tyner, and three grandchildren. His younger brother Jarvis is the former executive vice chairman of the Communist Party USA.

Tyner is considered to be one of the most influential jazz pianists of the 20th century, an honor he earned during and after his time with Coltrane. Although he was a member of Coltrane's group, he was never overshadowed by Coltrane. He complemented and inspired Coltrane's open approach. His style of piano is comparable to Coltrane's maximalist style on saxophone. Tyner and Coltrane used similar scales, chordal structures, melodic phrasings, and rhythms.

Tyner, who was left-handed, played with a low bass left hand in which he raised his arm high above the keyboard for an emphatic attack. His right-hand soloing was detached and staccato. His melodic vocabulary was rich, ranging from raw blues to complexly superimposed pentatonic scales; his approach to chord voicing (most characteristically by fourths) has influenced contemporary jazz pianists, such as Chick Corea.

Tyner was named a 2002 NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts. He won five Grammy Awards, for The Turning Point and Journey and best instrumental jazz album for Illuminations, Infinity, and Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane.

Tyner was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music at the Sala dei Notari during the Umbria Jazz Festival. Tyner was a judge for the 6th, 10th and 11th annual Independent Music Awards (IMAs) to support independent artists' careers.