McCoy Tyner Biography – McCoy Tyner Wiki

Alfred McCoy Tyner was a jazz pianist. He was best known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet. He e began playing piano at age 13, entertaining the clients at his mother’s hair salon. In 1960, at age 22, he joined the Jazztet, a sextet led by trumpeter Art Farmer and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. Six months later he had joined the John Coltrane Quartet alongside Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. During Tyner’s tenure with Coltrane, the group progressed from modal jazz to increasingly avant-garde free jazz explorations.

As Coltrane gravitated toward atonal experiments, Tyner left to focus on his own band, which he had maintained throughout his stint with Coltrane. He spent the late ’60s recording post-bop albums for Blue Note and working as a sideman for acts including Ike and Tina Turner. He went on to release a wealth of albums for a wide range of labels throughout the ensuing decades, becoming a star in his own right during the 1970s. That era, during which he recorded for the Milestone label, also saw him branch out beyond piano, experimenting with the koto on 1972’s Sahara and the celeste and harpsicord on 1975’s Trident, according to Stereogum.

McCoy Tyner Age

McCoy Tyner was born on December 11, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. He died on March 6, 2020, in New Jersey, at the age of 81.