Friday, December 11, 2009

Mccoy Tyner's Birthday

December 11, 2009



This is improvisational jazz as good as it gets. Tyner has only improved with age (MT is first shown as the side view piano man in the above video)

Mccoy first joined the Coltrane quartet which featured John Coltrane on sax, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums in 1961. Both Coltrane and Tyner had their roots in Philadelphia so it was inevitable they would meet and perhaps, inevitable they would be share and complement their respective geniuses for a number of years with their timeless classics of Afro Jazz (on You Tube video above, Tyner solos at 1:10), My Favorite Things and Naima.

My discovery of this memorable quartet was in San Francisco in 1969, when a friend lent my their LP; I was so haunted and enchanted by this melody as well as Out of This World; with permission, I recorded the LP on tape which I still have.

I recommend to all jazz lovers, the 2001 recording of Mccoy Tyner plays Coltrane, Live at the Village Vanguard.

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