McCoy Tyner's Latin side

Latin Beat Magazine, Sept, 2003 by Frank M. Figueroa

As far as he can remember, McCoy Tyner was always interested in African rhythms and their subsequent manifestation in Latin music. Moreover, even as a teenager in his hometown of Philadelphia, he was aware of the connection between African and Latin cultures. His percussive inclinations led him to learn to play the conga drum. According to

Tyner, "I played it until my fingers felt the punishment." However, the piano was his instrument of choice, and he completed three years of formal music training at the Philadelphia Music Center. Tyner claims that from the start, jazz pianists Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Art Tatum influenced him. Soon after he graduated from high school, he was performing with many well-known jazz greats including John Coltrane.

By the 1960s, Tyner was working with African and Latin percussionists. He was well acquainted with Cuban conguero Mongo Santamaría. In 1963, Tyner recorded one of his tunes (Afro Blue) as a memer of the John Coltrane Quartet for the Impulse label. With the advent of the Brazilian music boom, Tyner recorded such classic bossa novas and sambas as Wave and Manhá de Carnaval. He also wrote and recorded the Brazilian tunes Salvadore de Samba, Love Samba, Rio and Festival in Bahia.

Through his exposure to Alto-Latin rhythms, Tyner developed a percussive, vigorous approach to the piano. While maintaining his uncompromising posture as a jazz pianist, he has managed in incorporate a Latin flavor to his playing. Using the words of the fabled Jelly Roll Morton, McCoy is an example of playing jazz "with a Latin tinge."

In other incursions into the Afro-Latin field, Tyner recorded with his own group the LP Song of the New World (1973) for Milestone Records. In 1974, he included his own composition La Cubana in his album Sama Luyuca (Milestone). The same company released Tyner's album Inner Voices in 1977. It included his original tune Festival in Bahia. However, he made Iris strongest commitment to Afro-Caribbean jazz music in 1981, when he recorded the album La Leyenda de la Hora (The Legend of the Hour) for CBS/Columbia Records. Featured in the production were saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, percussionist Daniel Ponce and drummer Ignacio Berroa. McCoy's own La Habana Sol (The Havana Sun) is one of the highlights of this album. Koch Jazz Records released La Leyenda de la Hora as a CD in 1998.

Claiming a prominent spot for Tyner among the Latin jazz performers, Telarc Jazz released in 1999 McCoy Tyner's most ambitious album in that genre, McCoy Tyner and the Latin All-Stars. As the title indicates, the lineup included such renowned Latin artists as Brazilian trumpeter Claudio Roditi, trombonist Steve Turre, flutist Dave Valentin, conga player Giovanni Hidalgo, timbalero Johnny Almendra and drummer Ignacio Berroa.

Tyner contributed three of his compositions to the album: A Song for Love. Festival in Bahia and La Habana Sol. Rounding out the song list are Poinciana (the Beinier/Simon standard of which Ahmad Jamal made the ultimate interpretation), Afro Blue (the Mongo Santamaría composition), Blue Bossa, written by Kenny Dorham, and We Are Our Father's Sons by Avery Sharpe.

The pianist, composer and bandleader explained quite definitely the purpose of this album when he said: "We're not trying to do salsa of anything traditionally Latin. I grew up in America; I'm not Cuban, even though the roots are the same. I'm gonna play jazz. I'm trying to synthesize it all into my own statement."

In spite of that statement, McCoy Tyner's improvisations on the album are brilliant enough to be accceptable to both jazz and Latin music fans. The percussionists provide authenticity to the sound and the flute and horns shine on their own. Is it jazz, Latin music of Latin jazz? We leave that to the judgement of the listeners, whether music experts of novices.

The latest McCoy Tyner release by Telarc titled Land of Giants features seven compositions by the talented jazz pianist. Although there are no explicit Latin jazz numbers, throughout the album one feels a faint Latin tinge, Tyner is backed by the excellent musicianship of vibraphonist Robby Hutcherson, bassist Charnett Moffett and drummer Eric Harland.

McCoy Tyner is without a doubt one of the most important contemporary figures in jazz. He created a piano style that is strictly his own and has influenced most modern jazz pianists. The following comments by Tyner constitute an accurate self-portrait of the artist ...

"After a while, the instrument becomes an extension of yourself, and you and your instrument become one."

"For me, all music is a journey of the soul into new, uncharted territory."

"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. Therefore, just as I can't predicts what kinds of experiences I'm going to have, I can't predict the direction in which my music will go. I just want to write and play my instrument as I feel."