Inception: 1960s McCoy Tyner on Night Lights

[ghost of miles]

(A special thanks to Son-of-a-Weizen for this week's show; I had mentioned doing a "Classic Quartet Without Coltrane" program, and he proposed a Tyner-on-Impulse idea instead. Also a special thanks to White Lightning, who has posted a link to several archived Night Lights programs in his Israeli jazz forum, and who reports that they've garnered a good response.)

 

This week on Night Lights it's "Inception: the 1960s Impulse Recordings of McCoy Tyner." Tyner joined John Coltrane's group at the age of 22 in 1960 and signed with Impulse not long after Coltrane moved to the label in 1961. Over the next four years Tyner would record seven albums as a leader for Impulse, most often in the trio format that was seen as being both commercially favorable and a chance to showcase him in a setting different from the Coltrane quartet. Though Tyner's playing on these records is considered not to be as adventurous as his performances with Coltrane during the same period, Tyner's style--achieved somewhat by a prominent use of fourth chords, which gave both his and Coltrane's music a more abstract, serious, and spiritual sound--is already quite present. Some albums find him in the company of bandmates Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones (their ILLUMINATION! effort for Impulse, from which we'll hear Tyner's ballad "Oriental Flower"), while LIVE AT NEWPORT features him in a rather impromptu jam with alto saxophonist Charlie Mariano and trumpeter Clark Terry. Tyner's last 1960s album for Impulse, PLAYS DUKE ELLINGTON, was recorded the same week that he was in the studio to do A LOVE SUPREME with Coltrane.

 

Tyner left Coltrane's group in December 1965, no longer feeling compatible with the musical direction that Coltrane was taking. He played with Art Blakey for a brief period in 1966 and struggled to remain a fulltime, professional musician. In 1967 he began a remarkable stream of albums for the Blue Note label with THE REAL MCCOY (Mosaic Records keeps hinting that it will eventually release a box of his complete recordings for the label). His Impulse albums, often overlooked in favor of his later Blue Notes and 1970s Milestone LPs, yield an intriguing look at the youth of a modern jazz piano giant.

The program airs this Saturday night at 11:10 (9:10 on the West Coast, 12:10 in New York); you can listen live on the web at WFIU; the program will be archived afterwards on the Night Lights website.

 

Coming up in the next two weeks:

Oct. 16--"The Jazz Workshops Pt. 1." Progressive 1950s jazz from the RCA Victor label, featuring LPs by George Russell and Hal McKusick.

Oct. 23--"The House in the Heart: Lester Young in the 1950s." Late-period Pres from both the Verve label and his 1956 Washington D.C. concerts, along with interview segments from 1958 and 1959 (shortly before his death) and readings from Bobby Scott's essay-memoir about traveling and playing with Young in the last years of his life.

Edited December 11, 2017 by ghost of miles

[ghost of miles]

Up for broadcast in two hours.

[gdogus]

GoM:

Just wanted to say I've really enjoyed shows from the Night Lights archive, which I tend to listen to in the week or two after the original broadcast - loved the recent Herbie Nichols show!

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Thanks David! Sorry to say that I missed it as well and will have to catch the archived edition w/gdogus. I planned to catch the show but made the mistake of watching the tube....& as Geraldo yammered on and on, the eyes started to glaze over......and the last thing I remember seeing was her larger than life grinning face filling up the entire tv screen as she started to say............and then zzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Edited October 10, 2004 by Son-of-a-Weizen

[ghost of miles]

GoM:

Just wanted to say I've really enjoyed shows from the Night Lights archive, which I tend to listen to in the week or two after the original broadcast - loved the recent Herbie Nichols show!

Hey, thanks so much, gdogus! I was fairly happy with how the Herbie Nichols Project show turned out... I've got a Halloween show in the works that will include the story of the New Orleans Jazz Killer (true tale!).

SOAW, the Tyner program should be archived in the next day or two. I thank the powers-that-be for the Internet (and Al Gore, of course ), as the show is going to start airing an hour later as of Nov. 1, owing to the time-change. So I'll really be pushing the archive at that point! Anyways, will give you a heads-up when "Inception" is posted.

[Jim Dye]

I happened to log on to Organissimo last night at 11:00 and saw that your show was about to start. Now that I have broadband again, I was able to tune in. I really enjoyed it! It brought back a whole bunch of good memories for me. I used to do a Sunday night show on the Michigan State station nearly 15(!) years ago.

I don't visit the Impulse Tyner's as often as I should. Thanks for the great reminder. I've got you bookmarked now.

[ghost of miles]

Thanks for your comments as well, Jim--it's very heartening to hear from fellow jazz lovers & listeners all over.

The McCoy Tyner show is now archived.

Edited December 11, 2017 by ghost of miles

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

I gave 'er a shot but the Oct. 2 program still seems to be hanging around. Flip a switch or somethin' & work some magic will ya??!!

[ghost of miles]

The appropriate authorities have been contacted. We apologize for this brief delay in transmission! In the meantime, I love to whistle.

[ghost of miles]

The Tyner program is finally up on the archives page. My apologies for the delay--our webmaster is employed fulltime elsewhere, and he and his wife just had a baby. What is it with these parenting types anyway? Don't they know that public radio is the only thing that matters? OTOH, they are breeding the next generation of membership!

Edited December 11, 2017 by ghost of miles

[Enterprise Server]

Sounds good. I've always liked those early McCoy Impulse albums. His playing is very different when compared to what he is currenlty doing. How did the show turn out?

[ghost of miles]

Up for Mr. Tyner's 79th birthday today:

Inception: McCoy Tyner On Impulse