McCOY TYNER, piano
 
mccoytyner.com
 
 
Shaping modern jazz...
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. The band, which also included drummer Elvin Jones and bassist Jimmy Garrison, had an extraordinary chemistry, fostered in part by Tyner’s almost familial relationship with Coltrane.
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. He performed on Coltrane’s classic recordings such as Live at the Village Vanguard, Impressions and Coltrane’s signature suite, A Love Supreme.
In 1965, after over five years with Coltrane's quartet, Tyner left the group to explore his destiny as a composer and bandleader. 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. Today, this trio is still in great demand. He returned to Impulse in 1995, with a superb album featuring Michael Brecker. In 1996 he recorded a special album with the music of Burt Bacharach. In 1998 he changed labels again and recorded an interesting latin album and an album featuring Stanley Clarke for TelArc.
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 has led to the formation of 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. Recorded live on New Year’s Eve 2006, the album features a working band at its finest with some of today’s “legends in training”. Additionally, the record shows that Tyner, who now carries the torch as the only surviving member of the John Coltrane Quartet, is still at the top of his game as a composer, performer, and bandleader.
In a review of Tyner’s latest album “Quartet,” Thomas Conrad of JazzTimes wrote “‘Quartet’ succeeds not only because everyone plays so well, but also because they play so well together. The pairing of Tyner and Lovano is synergistic. The McBride/Watts rhythm section, for intelligent propulsion, is state-of-the-art. ‘Quartet’ succeeds once more because of its excellent sonic quality. It was recorded by engineer Phil Edwards at Yoshi’s in Oakland, Calif., over New Year’s Eve weekend 2006. Almost always, even the best-sounding jazz albums require you to make a choice. You can have the visceral in-the-moment reality of a live recording, or the full bandwidth resolution of a studio session. This one has both.”
McCoy Tyner’s second release for the McCoy Tyner Music label, titled GUITARS, was released on September 23, 2008. The recording features the stellar rhythm section of Tyner, Ron Carter, and Jack DeJohnette with four modern guitarists (and one banjo) of our time: Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, John Scofield, Derek Trucks, and Bela Fleck. The package will be a CD/DVD that includes 3 hours of multi-angle viewing capabilities. In 2009, Tyner will release his third recording for McCoy Tyner Music, a solo piano performance recorded live in San Francisco during the summer of 2007.
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.

AWARDS & HONORS
2008 - Presidential Merit Award from the Grammy Foundation
2005 - Berklee College of Music President Roger Brown conferred honorary doctor of music degrees upon pianists McCoy Tyner and Hank Jones.
2004 - Steinway and Sons conferred a special gold medallion to McCoy Tyner honoring his fiftieth year as a professional musician and his long association with Steinway as a Steinway Artist since 1977.
2004 - McCoy Tyner's album "Illuminations" receives a GRAMMY award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group.
2003 - The Philadelphia Chapter of the BMI Recording Academy awarded McCoy Tyner with a "2003 Hero Award". The Chapter presents its Heroes Awards annually to honor outstanding individuals and institutions in the Philadelphia region who have improved the environment for the creative community.
2002 - McCoy Tyner receives a Jazz Master award from the National Endowment for the Arts. (2002 NEA Jazz Masters recipient)
1995 - McCoy Tyner's album "Infinity" receives a GRAMMY award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual Or Group.
1994 - McCoy Tyner's album "Journey" receives a GRAMMY award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance.
1992 - McCoy Tyner's album "The Turning Point" receives a GRAMMY award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance.
1988 - The album "Blues for Coltrane - A Tribute to John Coltrane" receives a GRAMMY award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group. (The album features David Murray, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders, Cecil McBee & Roy Haynes)
1977 - McCoy Tyner was named "Pianist of the Year" in the Down Beat Critics Poll for the fourth year in row. (1974 - 1977)
1977 - McCoy Tyner's band was selected "Acoustic Jazz Group" of the year in the Down Beat Critics Poll for the fourth year in row. (1974 - 1977)
1973 - McCoy Tyner's album "Sahara" receives two GRAMMY award nominations and was named 'Record of the year' in the Down Beat Critics Poll.
GARY BARTZ, saxophone
 
www.garybartz.com
 
 
 
Grammy Award winning jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz first came to New York In 1958 to attend the Julliard Conservatory of Music. Just 17 years old, Gary couldn't wait to come to the city to play and learn. "It was a very good time for the music in New York, at the end of what had been the be-bop era," says Bartz. "Charlie Parker had passed away three years previously but Miles' group was in its heyday, Monk was down at the Five Spot, and Ornette Coleman was just coming to town. Things were fresh." Back then, Gary could regularly be found drinking Cokes in the all ages "peanut gallery" of Birdland, enjoying a marathon bill of performers. "If I didn't have money to get in. I'd help somebody carry a drum and sneak in," laughs Bartz. "I learned that early on." Circa mid-'60s, the alto saxophonist - still in his early 20s - began performing throughout the city with the Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln Group and quickly established himself as the most promising alto voice since Cannonball Adderley. "In those days, we used to go by people's lofts and stay for weeks, just working on music," says Gary. "Folks would all chip in and buy food, and one of us would cook. But there was always music, because people were dropping by at all hours. We didn't even think about it; that's just what we did. We were very unselfish about what we were writing because, after all, music doesn't belong to any one person. It belongs to the people, to everybody." With the splash of his New York debut solidly behind him, Bartz soon joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. According to the story, Gary's parents owned a club in Baltimore, the North End Lounge. When his father hired Blakey for a gig, Gary grabbed the opportunity to fill a sax player vacancy in the band. After his performance that night, the young Bartz was officially hired to join the Jazz Messengers; in 1965, he would make his recording debut on Blakey's SOULFINGER album. From 1962-64, Gary joined Charles Mingus' Workshop and began practicing regularly with fellow members of the horn section, including Eric Dolphy. In 1968, Bartz began an association with McCoy Tyner, which included participating in Tyner's classic EXPANSIONS and EXTENSIONS albums. Work with McCoy proved especially significant for Bartz because of the bandleader's strong connection to John Coltrane — who Gary succinctly cites as a profound influence. Gary continues to perform and record with McCoy to this day. During his first two years with Tyner, Gary was also touring with Max Roach and taking some time out to record on Max's Atlantic Records release, Members don’t get weary. "With Max, there was that bond with Charlie Parker," declares Bartz. "Charlie Parker is why I play the alto saxophone." Bartz received a call from Miles Davis in 1970; work with the legendary horn player marked Gary's first experience playing electric music. It also reaffirmed his yen for an even stronger connection to Coltrane. In addition to working with Miles in the early '70s - including playing the historic Isle of Wight Festival in August, 1970 - Bartz was busy fronting his own NTU Troop ensemble. The group got its name from the Bantu language: NTU means unity in all things, time and space, living and dead, seen and unseen. Outside the Troop, Bartz had been recording as a group leader since 1968, and continued to do so throughout the '70s, during which time he released such acclaimed albums as, Another Earth, Home, Music is my sanctuary, and Love Affair, by the late '70s, he was doing studio work in Los Angeles with Norman Connors and Phyllis Hyman. In 1988, after a nine-year break between solo releases, Bartz began recording what music columnist Gene Kalbacher described as "vital ear-opening sides," on such albums as Monsoon, West 42nd Street, There Goes the Neighborhood, and Shadows. Bartz followed those impressive works in 1995 with the release of his debut Atlantic album The Red and Orange Poems, a self-described musical mystery novel and just one of Gary's brilliantly conceived concept albums. Back when Bartz masterminded the much-touted I’ve Known Rivers album, based on the poetry of Langston Hughes, his concepts would be twenty years ahead of those held by some of today's jazz/hip hop and acid jazz combos. So it continues with The Blues Chronicles: Tales of Life. A testimonial to a steadfast belief in the power of music to soothe, challenge, spark a crowd to full freak, or move one person to think. It adds up to a shoe box full of musical snapshots from a life lived and played with passion and stirred - with both joy and sadness - by the blues. Gary's latest release, Live at the Jazz Standard vol. 1 – Soulstice, is the first of a series of recordings documenting his legendary, non-stop style, live performances. This initial release on his own OYO label bares testimony to Gary's continuing growth as a composer, group leader, and master of both the alto and soprano saxophones. A quartet session recorded in 1998, it will be followed by Live at the Jazz Standard vol. 2, scheduled for late Spring 2000 release, which features Gary's exciting Sextet. Scheduled for release this year, Soprano Stories will find Gary exclusively performing on the soprano saxophone in a studio quartet setting. With over 30 recordings as a leader (as well as more than 100 recordings as a guest artist with others), Gary Bartz has taken his rightful place in the pantheon of jazz greats.
GERALD CANNON, bass
Jazz musician composer and painter, working tirelessly on preserving jazz as an American art form…. Enter Gerald Cannon. Born in Racine, Wisconsin, Gerald’s initial inspiration was his father Benjamin, a guitarist, who bought him his first electric bass when he was 10 years old. At 16 he began playing bass in his father’s gospel group The Gospel Expressions. Gerald attended The University of Wisconsin at La Cross; where he met jazz great Milt Hinton. This meeting not only changed Gerald’s major in college from physical education to music, but it also changed the rest of his life. Gerald, 19 years old at the time, transferred to the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, where he spent the next four years studying jazz bass, classical bass and piano. He also studied art history and art at Marquette University, which nurtured a natural talent and love of painting. Outside of school, Gerald began working as musical director with Penny Goodwin, who ultimately became his single greatest mentor. This experience, combined with the subsequent creation of his own quintet Gerald Cannon’s Jazz Elements, laid the foundation for a solid reputation as a leader and composer in his own right. At 28, Gerald arrived in New York City. He immediately started earning his living, playing bass in the subway and jam sessions with the house band at the Blue Note with now renowned musicians like Russell Malone, Winard & Philip Harper and Justin Robinson. From there, prestigious gigs arose with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Dexter Gordon, Cedar Walton trio with Billy Higgins, Jimmy Smith, Little Jimmy Scott, James Williams, Hamiett Bluiett, Ed Thigpen, Frank Foster, John Bunch, Eddie Harris, Stanley Turrentine and Bunky Green. After a short stint back home Gerald came back to New York to work with Buddy Montgomery and Andy Bey. Good fortune soon followed with an introduction to Roy Hargrove who came to a club where Gerald was working. Roy expressed interest in Gerald and arranged a meeting in New York. A couple of weeks after that meeting, Gerald received a call from Roy’s manager asking Gerald to join Roy’s band. Gerald accepted. Together, they’ve achieved national and international success for 7 years. During that period Gerald has performed at all the major jazz festivals all over the world, like the North Sea Jazz Festival, Cape Town Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy and the Montreal Jazz Festival. He also was a part of the award winning Crisol tour with Roy where Gerald played with great Cuban musicians like master percussionist Jose Luis “Chanquito” Quintana, Miguel “Anga” Diaz, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, Chucho Valdes and studied with excellent bassists like Orlando “Cachahito” Lopez and pianist Ruben Gonzalez. Gerald carries the knowledge passed on to him by legendary bassists such as Ray Brown and Sam Jones, and continues the legacy by conducting master classes throughout the U.S. and Europe. He taught at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, the New School in New York and at the Long Island University.  He also gave a number of masterclasses at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater and Eau Clair, at the Emery University in Atlanta, Georgia and at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Gerald is now a permanent faculty member of the prestigious Conservatory of Maastricht, Holland. After leaving Roy Hargrove, Gerald held down the basschair for legendary drummer Elvin Jones and the Jazzmachine up until his passing in 2004. Since then Gerald has been doing work with numerous elite jazz musicians such as Branford Marsalis, Pat Martino, Louis Hayes and The Cannonball Legacy, Ernestine Anderson, Carmen Lundy, Abbey Lincoln, Wynton Marsalis, Cyrus Chestnut, Eric Lewis, Larry Willis, Eddie Henderson, Russell Malone and currently the great McCoy Tyner trio Steve Turre, Eric Reed and many different all star combinations, as well as with his own quartet. Meanwhile Gerald also started producing. In 2001 he produced Mad about the Boy, a record by jazz vocalist Jeanne Gies. The consummate sideman, musical director, composer, educator, painter and producer Gerald has now stepped out front as a leader with the debut of his self-titled recording Gerald Cannon (Woodneck Records) in 2004. Like the masters before him, Gerald Cannon has established a fearless, solid groove that distinguishes him as one of the principal figures in jazz.
ERIC KAMAU GRAVATT, drums
Pronunciation:
ERIC - er' ik (sounds like "air rick") [Scandanavian; Old Norse "Eirikr" <Germanic*"aizo", honor (akin to Germanic "ehre", honor) +base akin to Latin "Rex"(see Rich) hence literally "Honorable Ruler"]
KAMAU - KA(boom) MAU(rhymes w/POW) [Gikuyu, "Quiet Warrior"]
GRAVATT - GRA (mmarian) VATT (rhymes w/yacht) [Welsh? "a griffin"?]

Acknowledgements
Much acknowledgement and respect I have for my principal teachers; "Sharpnack Street Ray", Mr. George Elias Lockhardt II, the late Dr. J. R. Mitchell, Mr. Silas Kinsey, the late Ms. Edith Willard, the late Mr. Adnan Barakat, Lloyd Courtney and the late Mr. Warren McLendon.

Playing Experience: Since my Philadelphia Pennsylvania youth, I have often had the pleasure of playing drums on stage in either an ensemble or orchestral setting before literally thousands of people, performing music with Freiderich Gulda, Freddie Hubbard, The District of Columbia Youth Symphony, Albert Ayler, Don Ayler, Horiuchi Makoto, Roberta Flack, Sonny Fortune, The Minnesota Music Theater Company, The Oakland Youth Symphony, Jackie McLean, Charles Mingus, Donald Byrd, Howard Roberts, Passage, Carlos Valdez, Ladjii Cammara, Booker Irvin, Woody Shaw, Kenny Dorham, Blue Mitchell, Hank Mobley, Harold Wheeler, The Drifters, Tsuchiya Eiji, Hino Terumasa, Kikuchi Masabumi, The Milwaukee Symphony, Jimmy Heath, Donny Hathaway, Sam Rivers, Khalid Yasin, Andrew N. White III, The Billy Franze Trio, Tony Hymas, Paquito D'Rivera, George Mraz, Savion Glover, Ravi Coltrane, Stanley Clarke, Pharoah Saunders, The McCoy Tyner Big Band, Gary Bartz, Bobby Hutcherson, Lloyd McNeill, Dee Dee Bridgewater, James Carter, Terrance Blanchard, Terell Stafford, Dave Liebman, Wallace Roney, Steve Turre, Donald Harrison, Charnett Moffett, Eric Alexander and a host of others.

Teaching Experience: 1965; Tutored the Percussion section of the Philadelphia All City Elementary School Student’s Symphony Orchestra; 1967-1969; Directed full time music program for The New Thing Art & Architecture Center, Washington, D.C.; 1967 - 1969; Co-Instructor for the African Heritage Dancers & Drummers, Washington, D.C; 1980 - Present; Private consultation and Instruction to five clients; 1980 - April 19th, 2001; (Middle Management) Helped the State of Minnesota “teach” convicted felons how to productively structure their time.

Lectures: To date, I’ve lectured at The Georgetown Day School, Washington, D.C; Howard University, Washington D.C; Swarthmore College, Swarthmore Pennsylvania; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Kent State University, Kent, Ohio; Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont; Baruch City College, New York City, New York; Livingston College, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio; The Children’s Theater Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota and the A.N. School of Contemporary Music, Tokyo & Los Angeles.

Present: Having retired in 2001 at the rank of Lieutenant after a twenty-year career with The Minnesota Department Of Corrections, I have resumed my earlier involvement with professional music, performing with “Source Code”, a group of very fine players, as I continue my commitment to a recording facility and small ongoing publishing concern, "1619 Music Company”.
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