tranquil Archives - JAZZ IMPRESSIONS

Pete La Roca – Lazy Afternoon

One of the many attractive qualities of jazz, more than any other musical genre, is how the same song can be interpreted in many different ways. Whether this is Bill Evans and Yusef Lateef offering their personal takes on a classic soundtrack, or Ahmad Jamal and Bobby Hutcherson reworking a Herbie Hancock original, the musical freedom that underpins jazz allows its musicians to constantly reinvent and offer fresh perspectives on popular classics. In his last post, Dan wrote on guitarist Grant Green’s version of the ballad ‘Lazy Afternoon’. Whilst Green’s version is excellent, the definitive version in my opinion of this well known standard is found on drummer Pete La Roca’s album Basra, released in 1965 on Blue Note.

Pharoah Sanders – Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)

To mark the recent passing of pianist McCoy Tyner, the subject of our last post, the track for today is ‘Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner)’ from the live album Elevation by tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, released in 1974 on Impulse! records.

McCoy Tyner – Valley Of Life

Today we pay tribute to McCoy Tyner, whose work from the 1950s right up until his death earlier this month made him “the most influential pianist-composer in modern jazz,” according to the Penguin Jazz Guide. Best known for his work in John Coltrane’s legendary quartet, Tyner was an extraordinary artist in his own right, recording countless classic albums for the likes of Impulse!, Blue Note and Milestone.