McCoy Tyner, RIP

The great jazz pianist is gone, at the age of 81.

Tyner’s famous for his legendary work with John Coltrane at the peak of the saxophone master’s career between 1961 and 1965. Somewhat oddly, Tyner’s career is a bit hit and miss outside of that. He was someone who really did struggle with the rise of the extreme avant-garde by 1967 and he didn’t have a whole lot to do with that. He was barely playing for quite a few years in there before coming back with steady if not overly exceptional work as the neo-traditionalists rose up by the 1980s and the old masters became revered. But Tyner had some really interesting albums of his own and I would especially like to point out Sahara, his excellent release from 1972. It was his best selling album as a bandleader and for good reason. Even if he had died in 1966, he would be remembered as one of the great pianists of all time, but his later career is worth remembering too.