“To me living and music are all the same thing. And I keep finding out more about music as I learn more about myself, my environment, about all kinds of different things in life. I play what I live… I can't predict the directions in which my music will go. I just want to write and play my instrument as I feel.” -–McCoy Tyner

Pianist McCoy Tyner is one of the working legends of his generation, an artist whose long and diverse career spans the heyday of bop, the emergence of Coltrane, and the evolution of the complex structures that are hallmarks of modern jazz. His percussive attack, orchestral voicings, and modal harmonics have influenced several generations of musicians, and his ongoing work exemplifies the life of a creative artist constantly seeking to grow and respond. This week at the Blue Note in Manhattan (May 10-15), Tyner and his trio (Charnett Moffett, Eric Kamau Gravatt) are joined by Ravi Coltrane, Terrell Stafford, and Gary Bartz for a very special Sextet.

Alfred McCoy Tyner was born in Philadelphia in 1938. Encouraged by his parents to study music, he started formal lessons at thirteen, practicing on a neighbor’s piano. After his mother bought him his own piano a year later, Tyner began hosting his own jam sessions. At about the same time, he was exposed to global music through his junior high music teacher and involvement in a local dance studio, where he started studying African drumming, an influence that continues to infuse his music 50 years later.

Photo by Howard A. Gitelson www.howardgitelson.com

Young Tyner’s interest in bop was galvanized by early encounters with musicians in the neighborhood, including Bud Powell, Lee Morgan, Archie Shepp, Bobby Timmons, and Reggie Workman. "Bud and Richie Powell moved into my neighborhood. Bud was a major influence on me during my early teens. He was very dynamic." Other early influences included classical composers such as Stravinsky and Debussy, as well as Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Thelonious Monk, whose percussive style would leave an indelible imprint on Tyner. In addition to studies at the West Philadelphia Music School and later at the Granoff School of Music, teen Tyner played regularly at the Red Rooster, comping for visiting musicians. Here, at age 17, he first worked with fellow Philadelphian John Coltrane, who often used Tyner in his rhythm section whenever he played in town. Said Tyner later, “I never felt intimidated by John Coltrane, because I knew his mother, his cousin Mary, and his family. He used to pat me on the back, "This is my little brother, here."
  

Although Coltrane was interested in hiring McCoy Tyner as his regular pianist, it was sax virtuoso Benny Golson who first brought the young pianist to New York to join forces with Art Farmer in the first edition of the Jazztet. In 1960, when Coltrane left Miles Davis to form his own band, he hired Tyner and formed what many believe to be one of the greatest quartets in jazz, with Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. Experimenting with block chords and Eastern musical forms such as pentatonic scales and modal structures, Tyner played and recorded (Africa Brass, A Love Supreme, and My Favorite Things) with the rapidly rising sax star over the next five years. Noted Coltrane, “…McCoy has an exceptionally well developed sense of form, both as a soloist and accompanist. Invariably, in our group, he will take a tune and build his own structure for it. He is always looking for the most personal way of expressing himself.”

During the his years with Coltrane, Tyner also recorded on his own for Impulse!, releasing Inception, Night of Ballads and Blues, and Live at Newport. Switching to Blue Note, Tyner released widely acclaimed The Real McCoy in 1967, with saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter, and fellow Coltrane alum Elvin Jones. Despite the focus on rock, which eroded interest in jazz in the late 1960s, Tyner refused to follow the trend toward electronic music. With an increasingly complex approach to harmony, he found a more appreciative audience in the 1970s; his recording Sahara on Milestone received two Grammy nominations and won the Down Beat Critics’ Poll “Album of the Year” for 1972. In 1978, as a member of the Milestone Jazzstars, he toured with Sonny Rollins, Ron Carter, and Al Foster. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Tyner remained productive across a broad range of groupings and styles, from solo and trio to big band, from inventive post bop to compositions embracing African and Latin themes. His primary working group in the late 1980s and through much of the 1990s included bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Aaron Scott.

Now in his mid-60s, Tyner tours and records in varying combinations, often in the company of a new generation of musicians such as Charnett Moffett, Ravi Coltrane and Terrell Stafford, who along with Eric Kamu Gravatt and Gary Bartz, join Tyner for the run at the Blue Note.

As the son of John and Alice Coltrane, Ravi Coltrane has managed to fight off comparisons to his father even while exploring John Coltrane’s music and making a career playing the same instrument. Only two years old when his father died, he did not really examine his father’s music until hos 20s, although he had gravitated to the tenor sax in his teens. Now 40, Ravi Coltrane is a major force on tenor and soprano sax and player, bandleader and composer, has fronted a variety of jazz lineups, recorded three critically acclaimed albums as leader, worked as sideman for jazz luminaries such as Elvin Jones, Jack DeJohnette and Geri Allen, and founded an independent record label. He was part of the McCoy Tyner residency at Yoshi’s Oakland in 2004 and 2005.

Terrell Stafford was studying classical trumpet at the University of Maryland when his budding interest in jazz was reinforced playing in the college jazz band. Stafford pursued a Master’s in music performance at Rutgers University and then hooked up with Bobby Watson and Horizon, remaining with Watson for five years. For the past ten years, Stafford has performed with Cedar Walton, Sadao Watanabe, the Clayton Brothers, Herbie Mann, Kenny Barron, Matt Wilson, and big bands, including McCoy Tyner’s Latin Big Band, Jon Faddis' Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He’s also a dedicated educator, currently as Associate Professor of Jazz Studies at Temple University. Mentor McCoy Tyner notes, "Terell is one of the great players of our time, a fabulous trumpet player. He has his own voice on his instrument—a very personal sound.”

Grammy-winning saxophonist Gary Bartz started alto saxophone at age 11 and was sitting in at his father’s Baltimore nightclub as a teenager, jamming with Art Blakey and George Benson. After Juilliard and the Peabody Conservatory, he cut his teeth professionally with the Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln Group. He then played with McCoy Tyner, Blue Mitchell, and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers before joining Miles Davis in 1970. By the mid 70s, he had moved more toward soul and R&B, and he recorded some of the finest fusion music of the late 70s and 80s. In the past decade he has returned to mainstream jazz and remains a highly under-rated artist.

With a dynamic front line and the best of timekeepers in Charnett Moffett and Eric Kamu Gravatt, this special McCoy Tyner ensemble is a must-see for anyone near Manhattan this week, May 10-15. For more information and a schedule of performances, visit www.bluenote.net/newyork

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