Jazz Articles about McCoy Tyner

McCoy Tyner Quartet with Joe Lovano at the Kimmel Center

by Victor L. Schermer
March 5, 2010

Kimmel Center for the Performing ArtsVerizon HallPhiladelphia, PAFebruary 19, 2010

Whenever you go to hear McCoy Tyner, it's never a question of how well he's going to play. For half a century, during and after his legendary tenure with the quintessential John Coltrane Quartet that also included Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones, Tyner has been consistently delivering his message of strong, unadulterated, straight-ahead playing on countless occasions, whether concerts or recording dates. The question is ...

Grant Green: Matador

by Matt Marshall
December 7, 2009

Grant Green Matador Blue Note / Music Matters 2009 (1964)

This may be the reissue of 2009: a resplendent vinyl pressing of guitarist Grant Green's Matador on two 180-gram, 45-rpm records from Music Matters. This May 1964 recording was, like many Blue Note sets, not released until many years later (November 1979 in Japan in this case) and only reached the U.S. on CD in 1990. It has not been remastered since. The record ...

McCoy Tyner: alone and (in spirit) with SFJAZZ Collective

by J Hunter
December 4, 2009

Usually, the kind of passionate tribute SFJAZZ Collective delivers annually is reserved for artists who are either no longer on the scene, or whose productivity has seriously tanked. However, current honoree McCoy Tyner fits neither of those definitions. The pianist's winter 2009 disc follows the remarkable CD/DVD package Guitars (Half Note, 2008), and is Tyner's third project for his own production entity McCoy Tyner Music. That said, Tyner and the Collective appear side-by-side here; as well as both of them ...

McCoy Tyner: Fly With The Wind

by Graham L. Flanagan
May 18, 2009

McCoy Tyner may be best-known for his legendary tenure with John Coltrane's quartet in the early '60s, as well as his recordings as a leader for Blue Note, but budding fans should investigate his formidable output from the subsequent decade. In 1972, Tyner defected to Orrin Keepnews' Milestone label, where he remained through the early '80s. While at Milestone the pianist recorded no less than 20 albums. Recently released as part of the Keepnews Collection is the ...

McCoy Tyner: Guitars

by Terrell Kent Holmes
December 20, 2008

"Music is like a mirror of your soul. You just play and let it all happen." McCoy Tyner says this toward the end of his CD/DVD release Guitars, a meeting with a diverse lineup of guitarists for vibrant interpretations of contemporary tunes and classics. Marc Ribot imbues Tyner's “Passion Dance" with a dynamic edginess, delivering relentless, careening octaves and fiery distortion. And as incendiary as Ribot is on “Passion Dance," he's just as cool and blue on ...

McCoy Tyner: Guitars

by J Hunter
November 10, 2008

McCoy TynerGuitarsHalf Note Records2008

It's amazing that the concept of McCoy Tyner recording with a guitarist has never come up before. After all, the legendary piano man has done just about everything else, with and without former employer, saxophonist John Coltrane. Now we have Guitars, which mixes Tyner and a Hall of Fame rhythm section with a truly diverse group of string-driven all-stars. The result is an engrossing chronicle (both musical and ...

McCoy Tyner: Guitars

by Doug Collette
November 7, 2008

McCoy Tyner's Guitars would be perfect fodder for a blindfold test, but not so much just to identify who's playing what when, but to simply marvel at the wondrous interaction of this entire roster of players, sans the intrusion of the cult of personality. In that light, the CD is a marvelous listen on its own terms, The sequencing of the fourteen tracks allows the musicians to render all the material honestly, while at the same time ...