With his blues based jazz, pianist McCoy Tyner has always been a welcome guest at the festival. The American belongs to the rare class of musicians capable of bridging many periods in jazz history, just because he's lived them all. Last year we heard him with an all star sextet, now he'll be visiting with a trio (bassist Gerald Cannon and drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt). Tyner achieved worldwide fame as a member of the legendary Coltrane band with Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison, a band that treated the world to all those beautiful records like My Favorite Things, Olé Coltrane and A Love Supreme. After the breakup with Coltrane he initially worked as a sideman, but eventually developed a career as a leader. From 1962 onward he recorded his own albums, but after having signed with the Milestone label in 1972 he was recognized as one of the jazz greats. In 2005 he already won his fourth Grammy for Illuminations, featuring Gary Bartz among others.
