Coltrane believed in him before anyone else did

In 1961 John Coltrane said this about his pianist: "He holds down the harmonies and that allows me to forget them. He's the one who gives me wings and lets me take off from the ground."

What I love about McCoy Tyner's story is how many people believed in him before he believed in himself.

His mother saw it first. She ran a beauty shop in Philadelphia and pushed him toward piano at 13. Bud Powell lived around the corner. Coltrane lived three blocks away.

At 17 he converted to Islam through the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and took the name Sulieman Saud, the same community that shaped Ahmad Jamal, Art Blakey, and Yusef Lateef.

Coltrane was so convinced of this kid's gift that he recorded Tyner's composition The Believer in 1958, two years before he ever hired him.

Then Bob Thiele handed him a session at Van Gelder Studio in January 1962 and told him his piano was accessible enough to warrant a solo career.

Tyner was 23. Art Davis on bass. Elvin Jones on drums. Four originals. Two standards. Thirty two minutes. His first record as a leader. Inception.

He left Coltrane in 1965 as the music moved into free territory. He said it himself: "I didn't see myself making any contribution to that music. All I could hear was a lot of noise. I didn't have any feeling for the music, and when I don't have feelings, I don't play."

This record is the moment before all of that.