| The Soup Nazi |
03.23.2020 02:37 PM |
From The Wire:
Quote:
McCoy Tyner 1938–2020
Pat Thomas relays how great African traditions shaped Tyner’s musical education in the face of racist music journalism and white supremacy
Undoubtedly McCoy Tyner was one of the most influential pianists of the late 20th century. A true innovator who continued to be an ambassador for the African-American art form jazz. As part of The John Coltrane Quartet, he helped to establish the pursuit of excellence as pivotal to the African-American cultural aesthetic. He experienced first hand the brutal oppressive apartheid system prevalent in America. He witnessed the white flight of middle class America to the suburbs, resulting in black ghettos. In these ghettos, Jim Crow policies made sure blacks were to be permanent second class citizens, yet the resilience of black people to overcome these injustices is seen in their music. The bebop era that happened during McCoy’s childhood would instil a sense of pride and a sense of duty to maintain a great artistic tradition.
McCoy Tyner was born in Philadelphia on 11 December 1938, the city of Bud and Richie Powell. His mother Beatrice was the one who encouraged him to pursue music. She had her own hair salon and saved her money to buy McCoy a piano. He would perform and practice while his mother worked. It is said she had more clients because of this musical environment. The support Tyner received from his mother reminds me of the great matrilineal African tradition of nurturing and education. Amadou Bamba, the most successful pacifist of the 20th century, who waged a nonviolent Jihad – a term that means struggle and is virtually unknown in the west and sadly among Africans of the diaspora – was unlike Gandhi and Martin Luther King in that he lived to see the expulsion of the brutal French colonial regime in his lifetime and establish an independent state now called Senegal. In the holy city of Touba he founded the world famous Murridiya Sufi Tariqah, attracting a large African-American following even today. He also received great support from his mother Maam Jasra Busa.
The biggest influences were Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. From Powell he inherited staccato punctuation in the left hand, from Monk: how to use space. When I first heard McCoy Tyner I was mesmerized by his sound and his awe inspiring technique. The fact that he only had formal piano lessons at 13 proves he was a dedicated practitioner. By the age of 15 he began playing professionally. At the age of 17 he joined Cal Massey, where he developed his sight reading skills and, more crucially, played with Jimmy Garrison and met John Coltrane, with whom he became very close. These great black artists performed in a racially segregated environment and encountered viscous discrimination, which makes it a little bit ironic when white jazz critics complained about reverse racism. Blacks had to endure being refused hotel rooms on a regular basis, as well as constant police harassment and lynching. It should be noted that at the height of his success Nat King Cole could not go through the front door of NBC TV studios. This hostile environment was the norm; the fact this art form developed at all is nothing short of a miracle! It should also be noted that even though Coltrane was one of the biggest names in jazz his Quartet constantly experienced dehumanising situations: refused accommodation in the so called home of jazz New Orleans. I have always found it amusing when white liberals used to complain that leaders like Malcolm X were extremists in advocating separate states for blacks as separate existence had been the norm for over 200 years! Throughout his five year tenure as part of the classic quartet he would witness the rise of the civil rights movement. Blacks only achieved the right to vote in 1965, yet white jazz critics could only talk about white jazz players suffering Jim Crow discrimination.
When Eric Dolphy joined the group in 1961, Tyner had become a virtuoso pianist. With the radical intervallic playing of Dolphy, and Coltrane’s use of modal scales, he developed a harmonic system based on quarter tone harmony. This was encouraged by Coltrane, whom he called his greatest teacher. This continued the great African mentoring tradition, passing on his wisdom, the same way his great mentor Monk taught him: encouraging him to find his own musical voice. McCoy Tyner developed one of his greatest skills: his selflessness in accompaniment; laying out like his major influence Monk. If Trane hadn’t had Tyner at the piano, Coltrane music would not have happened. Tyner revolutionised the harmonic pallet. Using fourths instead of thirds he changed mainstream jazz forever, and his incorporation of the African pentatonic formula in his right hand became the most imitated style in jazz.
The role of white critical analysis of black music has always been controversial. The now celebrated Quartet were constantly being berated by the white jazz establishment as anti-jazz, especially when Dolphy joined. Downbeat’s John Tynan said that they were anti-jazz and asked Coltrane and Dolphy to explain themselves – a reminder that blacks lived in a racist system that could determine their livelihood.
The infamous Michael Zwerin interview in 1966 with the clown prince of the American avant garde John Cage, gave us a good example of white supremacy. Even though Cage had no formal musical education and was a pretty innocuous pianist, he went on to become the leading light of contemporary classical music. In spite of the fact that Arnold Schoenberg – the great composer and innovator who developed the 12 tone music system popularly known as atonal music – publicly stated Cage was pretty rubbish as a composer and knew nothing about harmony, Cage was still allowed to give his opinion on black jazz. Zwerin along with a host of establishment white critics felt threatened by the rise in radicalism among black artists and must have felt this would be a way of putting these uppity blacks in their place. Cage with nothing more than his white privilege was allowed to verbally excrete about jazz. Of course he had no idea what was going on in the music of Coltrane, especially with the harmony.
Tyner went on to have an illustrious career, creating a body of great compositions. One of my personal favourites which had a profound effect on me was the 1976 record Fly With The Wind. It has a great rhythm section of drummer Billy Cobham and bass player Ron Carter, Hubert Laws on flute, plus oboe, piccolo flute and a string section. The orchestrations were amazing, with a beautiful rendition of “You Stepped Out Of A Dream”. The epic “Enlightenment Suite” (from Tyner’s 1973 album Enlightenment, also featuring “Walk Spirit Talk Spirit”) is also a great personal favourite: a fantastic group with Azar Lawrence on tenor saxophone, drummer Alphonse Mouzon and the impeccable bass player Juni Booth.
McCoy Tyner passed away on 6 March at the age of 81.
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