Word: tyner
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When everybody starts naming the world's greatest pianists you always get the usual roll call: Ashkenazy, Serkin, Gilels, you know, the classical people. But how about this nomination: McCoy Tyner? After all, why must we always call Tyner one of the world's greatest living jazz musicians. For that matter why can't that roll call read Tyner, Monk, and Taylor...
Well anyway, we know the reason why it doesn't. But if you listen to the most recent McCoy Tyner stuff you will have to accord him a position much larger than the small niche of jazz master. Tyner has pioneered his own style of romantic piano, a sound that has come into its own within the last three years, and totally asserts itself in his latest album, Focal Point...
...Tyner's course is a strange one. He spent his formative years playing with John Coltrane, sticking with Trane for more than five years. His excellent piano work on albums like "My Favorite Things," both fast and slow versions, and on the series of Coltrane quartet albums of the 1963-64 period, identified Tyner as a standout on his own right...
...when Trane died in 1967, leaving Tyner to fend for himself, the mellow piano player turned vicous. He stayed that way right through the early portion of the 1970s. Albums like "sama Layuca" and "Song of the New World" lost that pleasing sound that he had created with Trane...
Speaking of focal points, McCoy Tyner's new album, "Focal Point," is just one terrific performance by Tyner. The release, cut this summer, but just now making it to the shelves at the Coop, is devoid of the heavy string section that made "Fly With the Wind" such a hit. This record is much more on line with the pulsating sounds of Trident. The most popular cut, at least for the disc jockeys, has been "indo Serenade," with its clearly defined melody and beautiful romantic piano work by Tyner. But the other numbers, including "Mes Trois Fils" and "Mode...