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posted by martyb on Wednesday March 11 2020, @11:52PM   Printer-friendly
from the its-the-notes-you-don't-play dept.

Noted pianist McCoy Tyner just passed. Perhaps best known for five years with John Coltrane in the early 1960s, he also recorded with his own band for many years. This is probably the obit of record,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/arts/music/mccoy-tyner-dead.html

Along with Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and only a few others, Mr. Tyner was one of the main expressways of modern jazz piano. Nearly every jazz pianist since Mr. Tyner’s years with Coltrane has had to learn his lessons, whether they ultimately discarded them or not.

Mr. Tyner’s manner was modest, but his sound was rich, percussive and serious, his lyrical improvisations centered by powerful left-hand chords marking the first beat of the bar and the tonal center of the music.

That sound helped create the atmosphere of Coltrane’s music and, to some extent, all jazz in the 1960s. (When you are thinking of Coltrane playing “My Favorite Things” or “A Love Supreme,” you may be thinking of the sound of Mr. Tyner almost as much as that of Coltrane’s saxophone.)

To a great extent he was a grounding force for Coltrane. In a 1961 interview, about a year and a half after hiring Mr. Tyner, Coltrane said: “My current pianist, McCoy Tyner, holds down the harmonies, and that allows me to forget them. He’s sort of the one who gives me wings and lets me take off from the ground from time to time.”

He was featured on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz show,
https://www.npr.org/2008/09/12/94547798/mccoy-tyner-on-piano-jazz

One of your AC's long time favorites is the driving piano on Ole', https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSMON8eO9Y


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @01:33AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @01:33AM (#969988)

    Obit doesn't specify, but he was in N. New Jersey, don't think that is a hotbed of the virus (yet). He was 81 and lived on the road a lot, could be he just wore out...?

    Poking around, I found one of his touring bands and have really enjoyed listening, here's part one (p2 is equally good or maybe even better) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RdHXui_SxA [youtube.com]

    Watch his hands on the piano--he really fires at the keys when he wants to, real power.