Rock and country acts may think they’ve got career longevity when their catalogue hits a dozen albums, but that’s nothing compared to some jazzbos. Pianist McCoy Tyner, now 69 years old, has close to 80 discs released under his name in a career that stretches back to the tail end of the bop era. And while he apprenticed and learned under giants like Bud Powell and, most memorably, John Coltrane — he appears on ‘Trane’s seminal My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme LPs — Tyner’s style is all his own. His keyboard playing has usually had a staccato, feverish style sometime at odds with more introverted, soft ivory-tinklers. Later, he incorporated African and East Asian instruments and big-band arrangements into his projects. The four-time Grammy winner’s most recent releases are a pair of 2007 discs: Quartet, recorded live in Oakland the previous New Year’s Eve, and Afro Blue, which compiles highlights from his Telarc releases.
This article appears in Mar 27 – Apr 2, 2008.
