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 arra ...