I've been listening to a lot of McCoy Tyner lately, so I thought I'd write about his performances on the wonderful John Coltrane minor blues called "Mr. P.C." (written for the bassist, Paul Chambers). I've heard about ten different versions of the tune played by the quartet on various recordings over the years, without ever feeling anything other than astonishment. In fact, it might be the best way to appreciate the artistry of the group, as both the theme and the harmonic structure are very easy to hear. The wealth of ideas, the speed at which they're being found, the powerful sounds that each musician variously harnesses and unleashes always at the service of the whole - it's remarkable stuff. Here's a wonderfully played version (but, unfortunately, not the best recording) in two parts: 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz2PzXuxwts 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umgJi6QXNEg&feature=watch_response

And Tyner, who found a vocabulary with which he could match the dynamic range and power of the others, is still doing it. Here's a link to his upcoming tour dates: http://mccoytyner.com/schedule.html.

Glenn Gould was also a fan of the iconoclastic free-jazz pianist Cecil Taylor (along with Arnold Schoenberg, as I mentioned yesterday). In fact, Gould was enamored by his music to such a degree that I keep coming back to Taylor's recordings to try to identify what it was that Gould liked so much. I do enjoy them, don't get me wrong, but they don't stay on my CD player for as long as, say, a McCoy Tyner album might. But I'm also left with the feeling that the deficiency is mine, not Taylor's, and that I still have some catching up to do in regards to hearing him properly.

I was fortunate enough to see Taylor at the Montreal Jazz Festival a few years back, and remember that a large segment of the audience didn't share my sentiment: A good quarter of the crowd walked out during the first tune. I don't know if this kind of reaction bothers Taylor or not (my guess is that it doesn't), but I do know that it hasn't stopped his pursuit of his very specific form of musical expression. He's been playing this way for over sixty years now, and whatever one thinks of the music, that fact alone commands respect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP5L8tjnB6w&feature=related

McCoy Tyner's first album as a leader, Inception (1962), hasn't lost any of its freshness in its almost fifty years of existence. It displays all of the qualities that he has become famous for: the astonishing range of his touch (from a snowflake landing to thunder), his unique harmonic approach (based on the sound of fourths, which has since become an integral part of modern jazz), and his brilliant compositional skills (the album features four wonderful originals, each thoughtfully arranged). The two standards, "There Is No Greater Love" and "Speak Low", are among the most frequently covered in jazz, but for me, the versions here are definitive. The rhythm section of Art Davis on bass and Elvin Jones on drums is as good as they come. In fact, to fully appreciate the group, I would recommend listening to this track ("Effendi": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLulnx8QT24) three times - with the attention on each musician once. Players like these deserve it.

McCoy Tyner was twenty-one when he joined John Coltrane's quartet in 1960. He was to become the perfect pianist for the group, and one of the most influential and distinctive in jazz history. His iconic contribution to Coltrane and to jazz, although not his only one, was the concept of organizing chord voicings in fourths, as opposed to thirds which had been the norm before him. This gave his sound a modern, muscular and brash quality that supported both Coltrane's playing, which was primarily based on elaborate chord substitutions, and Elvin Jones' poly-rhythmic drumming. Like other musical pioneers, his ideas have been emulated by so many musicians that appreciating their importance by listening to the original recordings takes some effort. The best way to do this is to listen to other records in the same genre and from the same time before listening to the pioneering one. To compare a recording from 1960 to one made in 2010 is not going to work in this regard, in other words, because the later one has the advantage of being able to use everything that came before it, including perhaps even the one in question.

One of the albums that best captures Tyner's importance to the Classic Quartet is 1961's My Favorite Things. Here are the links (parts one and two) for the title track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQsvMf8X0FY&feature=related / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt9iLDmaQwk&feature=related . You can either check out other small group jazz recordings from approximately the same era, or you can trust me: There aren't any that sound like this one. (Tomorrow, one of Tyner's recordings as a leader.)

I think I'll continue on the topic of great jazz albums for a couple of days, and today, I'll write about the only recording that the incomparable John Coltrane, as a leader, did with a singer: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963). Knowing what we do about Coltrane - that he was constantly searching for the essence of music - it's interesting to listen to him in this context, as well as to try to figure out what led him to the experience and what he took from it. His quartet at the time, which included McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrison on bass is often considered the greatest small group in jazz history. Their adventurousness and skill is at such a level that listeners can occasionally be overwhelmed with the music's intensity. I haven't met many people that saw the group live (they were around from 1962 to 1965), but one memorable description of the experience stayed with me: Seeing the group at close quarters in a small Montreal club, said a musician acquaintance, was like "standing up in a roller coaster". I didn't doubt it a bit: I've listened to a lot of their music and it's on its own in terms of intensity. (Here's a link to a live version of "My Favorite Things", for a sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PpuR98N40I .)

But today's topic, the album mentioned above, shows a very different side to their playing, as they support Hartman's inspired singing and extrapolate from the melodies. And what melodies they are: "They Say It's Wonderful", "Autumn Serenade", "Dedicated to You", "My One and Only Love", and the byzantine Billy Strayhorn masterpiece, "Lush Life", all songs of extraordinary beauty, were recorded on the first take (!). Only Rodgers and Hart's "You Are Too Beautiful" needed a second. I've always considered it a shame that it was their only recording together, but it could be looked at another way: It couldn't have been topped. And it still hasn't. Here's "Lush Life": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d6_LUDa_Zw .