Newport Jazz: Three Pianos and Two Guitars

This week’s new concert releases from the Newport Jazz Archives were recorded at Carnegie Hall on June 28, 1978. George Wein presented an program billed as “Three Pianos and Two Guitars,” with pianists McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans making solo appearances, Mary Lou Williams playing the keys accompanied by a bassist, and guitar greats Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine performing an acoustic duo set.

Click on the links and images below to stream and download the entire concerts, and to read more about the evening and these legendary jazz performers (the excerpts below were taken from the concert summaries written by esteemed jazz journalist Bill Milkowski).

McCoy Tyner
“Tyner was 40 and in fine form on this June 28th solo set at Carnegie Hall. On the forceful modal opener, “Song of the New World,” he runs cascading lines with the right hand while slamming signature chordal statements with the left. And his avant-garde asides on this turbulent number are positively Cecil Taylor-esque. His stunning extrapolation on Billy Eckstine’s “I Want to Talk About You,” the gorgeous ballad immortalized on John Coltrane’s 1965 Ballads album, is a virtuosic turn by the great pianist in full stride. And he summons up his most potent display of keyboard pyrotechnics on the closer, a passionate solo piano rendition of John Coltrane’s “The Promise,” which Tyner had recorded with Trane on the 1963 Impulse classic, Live at Birdland.”

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Bill Evans
“Bill Evans begins this rare solo piano concert by announcing to the Carnegie Hall crowd: “I’ve played here a couple of times before and I haven’t enjoyed the piano being amplified. I’m going to try to play without amplification, so…see what happens.” And from there he launches into a crystalline, spellbinding set of tunes that showcases his delicate touch, his very personal harmonic vocabulary and dramatic use of space.”

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Mary Lou Williams
“Williams opens her set with a dazzling solo piano medley that covers five primary styles of music – spirituals, ragtime, Kansas City swing, blues and boogie woogie – each played with rare authority and swagger. [Buster] Williams joins her for an unnamed Count Basie styled jump blues number that is fueled by his unerring walking lines. The bassist then takes the lead in playing the melody to the Cole Porter jazz standard “I Love You,” which is underscored by Mary Lou’s consummate accompaniment. They next turn in a rendition of John Stubblefield’s modern blues number “Baby Man” and close out their Carnegie show with a flourish on Mary Lou’s “Medi II” (from her 1974 album Zoning), which showcases her most aggressive playing of the set.”

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Larry Coryell and Philip Catherine
“After blazing the fusion trail in the ‘60s with The Free Spirits and Gary Burton’s groundbreaking quartet and during the early ‘70s with his electrifying bands Eleventh House and Foreplay, pioneering guitarist Larry Coryell turned to the purity of acoustic guitar by the end of the decade, if only to give his ears a rest. His first acoustic project was Twin House, a 1976 duet encounter with the great guitarist from Brussels, Belgium, Philip Catherine. They followed up in 1978 with Splendid. The two six-string wizards culled from both of those superb studio outings for their appearance together at the 1978 Newport Jazz Festival.”