In 1966, the pianist on A Love Supreme was studying for a taxi license in Philadelphia. This episode traces McCoy Tyner from the piano his mother installed in her beauty salon, lessons at the Granoff School, and a neighborhood where Bud Powell lived across the street, to his teenage conversion to Islam, his 1955 meeting with John Coltrane, and the pact that led him into the classic Coltrane Quartet with Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison.

We examine how a left-handed pianist built a thunderous ‘maximalist’ style, why Coltrane preferred no piano at all when Tyner was unavailable, and the shift toward atonal free jazz and added percussion that left Tyner hearing only noise and prompted his resignation. Then comes the slow rebuild through Blue Note, Milestone Records and producer Orrin Keepnews, the Grammy-nominated Sahara, self-taught string arrangements on Fly with the Wind, his refusal to use electronic instruments, and five late-career Grammys.

• How Naima Coltrane pushed John to ask Tyner to join his band
• Why Tyner rejected standard comping and challenged Coltrane harmonically
• What chords voiced in fourths and pentatonic scales sound like to a listener
• The koto, flute, harpsichord, and celesta experiments of the 1970s
• His influence on Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Vijay Iyer, and the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir