McCoy Tyner Trio at Jazz Alley

There isn't much you can say about the great McCoy Tyner that hasn't already been said -- he's a true piano virtuoso, a consumate composer, a seasoned bandleader, and a gifted and inventive improvisor. The Sunday night set was comprised of Tyner originals and classic standards, and while I've always enjoyed his open-harmony composition, the real highlight for me was his solo performance of We'll Be Together Again, which he recorded on one of his classic Impulse sides, Night of Ballads and Blues. His spontaneous reharmonizing of the tune, with a very free and exploratory introduction that almost gave the illusion of another tune, was jaw-dropping in my mind; the McCoy Tyner that everyone hears on the classic Coltrane albums is very different from the McCoy Tyner of 2005, and I think that his solo piano playing defines his own, unique style of today much more so than the trio rendition of Walk Spirit, Talk Spirit, one of his more recent, but nonetheless "classic", compositions. Not to mention that Charnett Moffett, also an extremely virtuosic bassist, seemed to "dumb down" the tunes in his solos -- Tyner is a chance taker and still proves to be that, while Moffett and the drummer (whose name I did not catch) were very safe, sometimes to the point of borderline corny-ness (for my taste).

While looking for a picture to add to this posting, I found a review of McCoy Tyner's trio at Jazz Alley from 1996 -- written by my brother Thomas for the University of Washington Daily. I was surprised to see how much we agreed on McCoy, despite the reviews being almost 10 years apart -- a true testement to McCoy -- and how the solo piano-playing really affected us both. To McCoy Tyner -- still pluggin' away, still kickin' ass and takin' names, and still a gentleman.