McCoy Tyner to be Honored at Giants of Jazz Concert, 11/29

Legendary Jazz Pianist McCoy Tyner will be the Jazz Master Honoree at this year's annual Giants of Jazz Concert at South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in South Orange, NJ. The concert will take place Sat., November 29 at 8pm at 1 SOPAC Way, South Orange, NJ, 07079, and will feature an unparalleled gathering of jazz artists who will play in tribute to McCoy Tyner. Last minute additions to the roster of artists are expected and highly anticipated. The tribute will be a celebratory event as renowned jazz artists come together to honor one of their own. Tickets are priced from $40- $60. To purchase, contact SOPAC at 973.313.ARTS (2787) or visit www.SOPACnow.org. Proceeds help to support South Orange Free Summer Concerts.

Now in its seventeenth year, Giants of Jazz has become an annual music phenomenon - literally a one-night festival that has established South Orange as a major New Jersey venue for world-class jazz.

Produced by John Lee & Legacy Productions, SOPAC and the Baird, Giants of Jazz was founded in 1997 by John Lee to honor exceptional musicians and to keep jazz visible and prominent in South Orange, home to many musicians and jazz lovers. The concert is linked to other musical events in South Orange, namely the Free Summer Concerts in the Park which Giants of Jazz helps to support.

As this year's South Orange Jazz Master honoree, McCoy Tyner will join a cast of distinguished artists whose creativity has had a major impact on jazz performance and/or education. Previous recipients include renowned musicians Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Clark Terry, Frank Wess, Benny Powell, Dr. Billy Taylor, Frank Foster and Marian McPartland, and Slide Hampton.

The evening is an amazing, not to be missed event featuring the cream of jazz musicians all sharing the love of jazz music in honor of McCoy Tyner. This year the lineup includes: ROY ASSAF, GARY BARTZ, TOMMY CAMPBELL, SHAREL CASSITY, CYRUS CHESTNUT, DEZRON DOUGLAS, VINCE ECTOR, JOSH EVANS, GERRY GIBBS, JAMES GIBBS, GREG GISBERT, RUSSELL HALL, BILLY HARPER, ANTONIO HART, JIMMY HEATH, FREDDIE HENDRIX, JULIAN LEE, MIKE LEE, ABELITA MATEUS, TS MONK, JEB PATTON, CLAUDIO RODITI, WALLACE RONEY, RENEE ROSNES, EVAN SHERMAN, EJ STRICKLAND, STEVE TURRE.

About McCoy Tyner: Tyner's blues-based piano style, replete with sophisticated chords and an explosively percussive left hand has transcended conventional styles to become one of the most identifiable sounds in improvised music. His harmonic contributions and dramatic rhythmic devices form the vocabulary of a majority of jazz pianists.

Born in 1938 in Philadelphia, he became a part of the fertile jazz and R&B scene of the early '50s. His parents imbued him with a love for music from an early age. His mother encouraged him to explore his musical interests through formal training.

At 17 he began a career-changing relationship with Miles Davis' sideman saxophonist John Coltrane. Tyner joined Coltrane for the classic album My Favorite Things (1960), and remained at the core of what became one of the most seminal groups in jazz history, The John Coltrane Quartet.

From 1960 through 1965, Tyner's name was propelled to international renown, as he developed a new vocabulary that transcended the piano styles of the time, providing a unique harmonic underpinning and rhythmic charge essential to the group's sound.

In 1965, Tyner left The John Coltrane Quartet. Among his major projects is a 1967 album entitled The Real McCoy, on which he was joined by saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter and fellow Coltrane alumnus Elvin Jones. His 1972 Grammy-award nomination album Sahara, broke new ground by the sounds and rhythms of Africa. Since 1980, he has also arranged his lavishly textured harmonies for a big band that performs and records when possible. In the late 1980s, he mainly focused on his piano trio featuring Avery Sharpe on bass and Aarron Scott on drums.

In the summer of 2005, Tyner joined forces with the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York and became the first client of Blue Note Management. That summer, Tyner began work on some unique projects, including performances with tap-dancer Savion Glover and the development of the Impulse! Septet, featuring his trio with some of today's top hornmen.

Tyner's partnership with the Blue Note led to his own record label, aptly titled McCoy Tyner Music. The label is a subsidiary of the Blue Note's In-House record label, Half Note Records. The label launched on September 11, 2007, upon the release of Tyner's latest CD, "Quartet" featuring Joe Lovano, Christian McBride, and Jeff "Tain" Watts.

Tyner has always expanded his vision of the musical landscape and incorporated new elements, whether from distant continents or diverse musical influences. More recently he has arranged for big bands, employed string arrangements, and even reinterpreted popular music. Today, Tyner has released nearly 80 albums under his name, earned four Grammys and was awarded Jazz Master from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002. He continues to leave his mark on generations of improvisers, and yet remains a disarmingly modest and spiritually directed man.

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