A Grand Love

In 1965, McCoy Tyner left what was arguably the highest-profile supporting role of jazz in the ‘60s, that of pianist in the John Coltrane Quartet.

Despite the reputation that position earned him, his career in the years after Coltrane’s death in 1967 suffered innumerable ups and downs as he moved between record companies and varying levels of commercial success.

But there was one constant during the difficult years that came before Tyner was signed by Milestone Records in 1972: his uncompromising approach to music.

One of Tyner’s club dates in the summer of 1971 is illustrative, one that came during an uncertain time in his career. His record label, Blue Note, had stopped releasing his albums, even though a number that would later be considered classics were finished and waiting for release.

Tyner’s quintet, with trumpeter Woody Shaw, saxophonist Sonny Fortune (both of whom would go on to lead their own bands), bassist Herbie Lewis and drummer Eric Gravatt, were making a weeklong appearance at Slug’s, the dingy, now-defunct jazz club on New York’s Lower East Side. It’s where trumpeter Lee Morgan would be shot to death a few months later (by some accounts, right off the bandstand) by an unhappy girlfriend.

During those steamy July nights, Tyner and crew, despite the rough-and-tumble atmosphere, created music every bit as intense and expressive as that of the Coltrane ensemble. Tyner, nearly invisible at the back of the bandstand behind the piano, created resounding improvisations that still ring in the minds of those of us who were there.

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That sense of dedication to his craft has been with Tyner throughout his career. Tyner, who plays Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, explained earlier this week from his Manhattan home why he can perform no other way.

“I fell in love with this music early on, and it’s been a wonderful romance,” he said. “[Dedication] is something that doesn’t die. When it’s something that you’re meant to do, something that’s been a part of you for so long, you can’t abandon it. You might move to the right or the left, experiment and try different things. But the thing that should never change is your integrity.”

That same commitment can still be heard in Tyner’s play, even when it comes in unlikely packages. His latest recording for the Impulse! label (the company that released his first recording, “Inception,” in 1962) is a collection of Burt Bacharach songs. They’re given jazz arrangements by composer John Clayton and played by a symphony orchestra and all feature Tyner’s deeply harmonic, deeply felt piano.

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Tyner admitted that originally he was skeptical of the project.

“[Impulse! producer] Tommy LiPuma was thinking of what Natalie Cole had done with ‘Unforgettable’ and he came up with the idea,” Tyner said. “I was thinking along the same lines but with someone else in mind--Cole Porter or Irving Berlin. But there’s been this resurgence of interest in Burt’s music and, unlike the men I was thinking about, he was still alive.

“So I sat down with [Clayton] to pick out some songs we could deal with, maybe change them harmonically but still keep the integrity of Bacharach’s sound. I was really amazed at what [Clayton] did with these pieces.

“I’d met John years ago and saw his orchestra at Marla’s Memory Lane [jazz club in Los Angeles], but I didn’t know he was capable of such orchestral arrangements.”

Clayton, the respected Los Angeles-based composer, arranger and bassist of the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, said, “I’m a huge admirer [of Tyner]. So the chance to work with him was the thrill of a lifetime. And McCoy made it easy.”

The disc covers such jazz-friendly numbers as “Alfie” and “The Look of Love” as well as such unlikely ditties as “Close to You” and “A House Is Not a Home.” Tyner’s appearance Saturday with his trio and symphony orchestra will be only his third live performance of the material, and the first on the West Coast.

“The challenge,” Clayton said, “was to really involve the orchestra, not just to have these lush orchestral passages backing the soloist, but rather to find a way to work both into the musical tapestry.”

Tyner, who brings in longtime bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Aaron Scott to provide drive for the orchestra, said his approach doesn’t vary much in these orchestral pieces.

“There are many interludes in which the trio leads and certain sections with strings when I’m not playing. I look at the orchestra as a big piano. They’re playing the things that I would normally play, so there are times when I just listen.”

He finds Sharpe and Scott indispensable to the program.

“Symphonic players are used to playing European-tradition, classical forms,” Tyner said. “It’s sometimes hard for them to articulate the syncopation of jazz. So [Sharpe and Scott] provide the groove.”

Tyner, who has recorded for numerous labels over the years, is changing record companies yet again in his ongoing crusade for artistic freedom. His next album, scheduled for a spring release, documents the Afro-Latin project he’s pursued over the years. It will be released on the Telarc label.

“I’m a little shy of signing long-term contracts,” Tyner said. “I like to move around, and like the idea of a record company getting excited about my next project. It’s easy to get lost in the shuffle when you’re with a big record company, especially one with pop interests.”

McCoy Tyner, among the most respected and dedicated jazz artists of his generation, lost in the shuffle? Hard to imagine.

* The McCoy Tyner Trio, with orchestra, plays Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. 8 p.m. $24-$46. (714) 556-2787.