McCoy Tyner
Piano Solo on
A Love Supreme, Part 3: Pursuance

About

McCoy Tyner takes fourteen churning choruses of piano on "Pursuance" at approximately 277 BPM, navigating the 12-bar blues in B-flat minor with the percussive intensity and harmonic richness that defined his classic period. Following Elvin Jones's iconic opening drum solo, Tyner's extended piano feature builds with relentless momentum, his quartal voicings and driving attack creating an irresistible forward thrust over the blues form. As the second soloist, his fourteen choruses prepare the ground for Coltrane's even more expansive sixteen-chorus tenor statement that follows, the two extended solos together forming the movement's core. The performance captures Tyner at the height of his powers within jazz's most celebrated quartet.

McCoy Tyner was 25 to 26 years old at the time.