Pianist McCoy Tyner

Trane and Beyond

By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 06, 2016

Pianist McCoy Tyner

Just once
With Speedway gang
Ball busting hipsters
Fell by the
Jazz Workshop
To catch Coltrane
No cover charge
Hung by the bar
The Classic Quartet
McCoy Tyner piano
Elvin Jones drums
Jimmy Garrison bass
Amazingly for then
Set one long improv
No riffs on tunes
Familiar chords from
Standards like bop
Strung out screed
Sheets of sound
Trane overblowing tenor
Emotional reach
Stretching upper register
Embracing dissonance
The band split leaving
Garrison alone to solo
Digging in
Sweating profusely
Lasted forever
They returned and
Took it out
Years later
Hanging with Tyner
At Lulu White's
Asked about Trane
They grew up in Philly
Bud Powell
Friend and neighbor
Languid style
Legato touch
Melancholy melodies
An early influence
After Miles
Gave Coltrane freedom
To stretch out
Creating new approach
Trane went on his own
Tyner recruited
Not accompanying
True ensemble playing
Pushing and inspiring
Powerful left hand
Percussive attack
Staccato right
Cluster fuck
Solid wall behind sax
Trane's extended ventures
Flights of fancy
Building on Bird
Beauty and rage
Then second drummer
Rasheid Ali
More noise than music
Tyner and Jones quit
Trane dead
Just two years after
I dug him in '65
Cancer but more
Couple of years ago
Heard McCoy at
The Mahaiwe
Concert not club
Too sedate
Not the same
Lacked the funk
Time has a way of
Fucking with you
Ears heart and mind
The early stuff
Hangs in
Such incredible
Head music
Where the sun
Don't shine