Interview with McCoy Tyner, November 2005, by Leon Kerkstra
In november 2005, McCoy Tyner performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Holland. We had a chance to talk with McCoy Tyner about his life and music before the performance, a true pleasure off course. At the start of the interview we first of all confronted McCoy with some information and screen-shots of the Jazz Resource Center to show him what our website is about. McCoy replied when he saw our "Scales" page...
McCOY TYNER: You know, I don't have a title for my scales, I just play [laughs].
JRC: We also have our page about piano voicings...
McCOY TYNER: I never analyze what I do for a reason, because I don't want to think of it as something technically. But maybe for students it's interesting. I'm not saying no one should sit down and analyze what I do, but I don't want to do it to myself. If I would start doing that, I'm finished.
But it's good you have this information for people, if they have questions, they have some response and good information on your site.
JRC: If we have a look at your latest albums, we have "Illuminations" and "Land of Giants". On "Land of Giants" there is an original composition called "Manalyuca"...
McCOY TYNER: yeah... those kind of songs... they have this modal kind of feeling, I like that. Well, I don't like to use the word "modal" but when people hear it they say: "It sound's modal". But I understand what they mean, because it's a vamp and you're free to do whatever you want to with the sound. But it's nice, because when I grew up they were playing a lot of changes. You know when I were a teenager... you had these bebop songs. At that time most of them were like that, you had Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk...they had a lot of changes. But then later on, as time went on, you had Miles Davis and John [Coltrane] who changed the concept of how you can play this music. Which is a very old concept when I think about it. You have the opportunity to play what you want; you can play changes or keep it simple.
