I don't understand what's going on in the world with this Corona issue. I am fully aware of the consequences however it really started bugging me as there are similar or way bigger problems around and no one is talking about them. According to Google news, the Coronavirus has reached 1.1 billion mentions in the media as of today (SARS was only 56 million). Is this a part of a conspiracy? We'll see...
As Benjamin Disraeli once said;
"Nature has given us two ears but only one mouth."
Here is the list for the weekend;
Lean Year - "Come and See"
The Black Keys - "Ohio"
Kate Bush - "King of the Mountain"
Sambalanca Trio - "Sam Blues"
The Beatles - "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
McCoy Tyner was probably one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time. He was also the last surviving member of the "John Coltrane Quartet" that influenced and continue to do so a lot of musicians until today.
He was born in Philadelphia in 1938. He started to play the piano at the age of 13 and in just two years he became an accomplished player. In 1959, Tyner joined trumpeter Art Farmer and saxophonist Benny Golson in a group they called The Jazztet; he appeared on its first album, released the following year.
That same year, 1960, Tyner played on Coltrane's album "My Favorite Things"; his tolling, meditative chords on the title track, a popular song borrowed from the hit Broadway musical The Sound of Music, were a key part of its allure.
Consequently, he joined the renowned quartet of John Coltrane and made very significant contributions to the band whose other members were Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison. The band worked hard between 1960 and 1965 heavily touring and making historic recordings such as "Live! at the Village Vanguard", "Ballads", "Live at Birdland", "Crescent" and "A Love Supreme".
John Coltrane Quartet
His involvement with Coltrane came to an end in 1965. Coltrane's music was becoming much more atonal and free; he had also augmented his quartet with percussion players who threatened to drown out both Tyner and Jones: "I didn't see myself making any contribution to that music... All I could hear was a lot of noise. I didn't have any feeling for the music, and when I don't have feelings, I don't play".
After leaving Coltrane's group, Tyner produced a series of post-bop albums released by Blue Note from 1967 to 1970. These included "The Real McCoy" (1967), "Tender Moments" (1967), "Time for Tyner" (1968), "Expansions" (1968) and "Extensions" (1970). He signed with Milestone and recorded "Sahara" (1972), "Enlightenment" (1973), and "Fly with the Wind" (1976), which included flautist Hubert Laws, drummer Billy Cobham, and a string orchestra.
Here is a video of the John Coltrane Quartet playing Impressions;
McCoy Tyner's powerful, propulsive style of piano playing was an integral part of the John Coltrane Quartet in the early 1960s and influenced countless musicians that followed him. His rich chord clusters continue to be copied by many young jazz pianists. His attack style and harmonic inventions continue to inspire many famous jazz musicians even today.
Here is a more recent video of the McCoy Tyner Trio, recorded live playing Monk's Dream;
RIP great master, you will be remembered forever...
This week's song is coming from a great English singer-songwriter who has passed away at a very young age in 1974. He lived just to 26, made three albums but influenced a lot of musicians. It was recorded and released in 1969 as a second single of the album called "Five Leaves Left".
Here is the song for this week;
"River Man"
Nick Drake wrote this song in a 5/4 time signature and is one of the few songs he wrote to be played in standard tuning. The song is backed by a 12-strong string section heavy on violas composed by Harry Robertson.
The album title is referred to the warning found towards the end of a packet of Rizla cigarette papers, that there were only five leaves left.
The song has been covered numerous times mostly by jazz musicians.
Here are the versions I picked for you;
Benjamin Clementine - "River Man"
Lizz Wright - "River Man"
Andy Bey - "River Man"
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.
Another week has passed by with much unpleasant news about the Coronavirus... Let's hope this will come to an end very soon.
As Douglas Adams once said;
"Beethoven tells you what it’s like to be Beethoven and Mozart tells you what it’s like to be human. Bach tells you what it’s like to be the universe."
Here is the list for this weekend;
Kathryn Williams - "Soul To Feet"
Guy Hatton - "Hollow Road"
Cobblestone Jazz - "Dump Truck"
Отава Ё - "Про Ивана Groove"
Félicia Atkinson - "Moderato Cantabile"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
PBS' American Masters series has released the new documentary, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, and it's streaming free online for a limited time. You can watch it here: PBS. I guess there are certain geographical restrictions, but worth the try...
