For Immediate Release: Press Contacts: November 25, 2015 Eileen Chambers, 312-294-3092 Rachelle Roe, 312-294-3090 Photos Available By Request [email protected] SCP JAZZ SERIES WELCOMES NEA JAZZ MASTER MCCOY TYNER BACK FOR UNIQUE TRIBUTE CONCERT—ECHOES WITH A FRIEND Pianists Geri Allen and Danilo Pérez and Celebrate Tyner’s Influence and Artistry in Program that Culminates with Performance by the McCoy Tyner Trio Friday, December 4, at 8 p.m. CHICAGO—The 2015/16 Symphony Center Presents (SCP) Jazz series continues with a concert titled Echoes with a Friend on Friday, December 4 at 8 p.m. More than forty years ago, jazz pianist McCoy Tyner offered his own tribute to friend, bandmate and jazz legend John Coltrane in the 1972 landmark solo piano recording Echoes of a Friend. Now, Tyner’s powerhouse influence is the inspiration for this new tribute program which features pianists Geri Allen and Danilo Pérez solo and in trio sets alongside McCoy Tyner Trio members Gerald Cannon (bass) and Francisco Mela (drums). Tyner himself joins his Trio to close the program. McCoy Tyner, hailed as “one of the most brilliant pianists and commanding leaders in modern music” (DownBeat), is the recipient of four Grammy® awards and was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master in 2002. With nearly 80 albums to his name, Tyner still continues to record and perform, with recent appearances at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre and a special appearance with the Stanley Clarke Band at New York’s Blue Note Jazz Club in November 2015. Tyner has made regular appearances on the SCP Jazz series since 1995 with his most recent performance with his Trio taking place in 2009. Pianist Geri Allen is a formidable name in jazz piano. Allen has recorded 18 albums and collaborated with some of the most influential jazz artists of her generation, including saxophonist Steve Coleman, with whom she was a founding part of the cutting-edge M-Base Collective. She tours with a number of groups including her own all-female ACS Trio comprised of Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington (drums); and Esperanza Spalding (bass). Allen was also recognized in 2010 with the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Award. Allen, who considers Tyner one of her great influences, performed with the McCoy Tyner Trio earlier this year on the San Francisco Jazz series. A native of Panama, pianist Danilo Pérez continues to forge his own path among a new generation of jazz artists with his Latin-inspired improvisations and fresh interpretations of jazz classics. Pérez frequently performs in the legendary Wayne Shorter Quartet and with his own Danilo Pérez Trio. A recipient of multiple Grammy® and Latin Grammy® award nominations, Pérez’s 2014 recording, Panama 500, is an exploration of the evolution of Latin American music. McCoy Tyner’s powerful influence on Perez led him and his quartet to perform a 2012 tribute concert to the legendary pianist at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia where Pérez served as artistic director for the Jazz Up Close series. Tickets for all Symphony Center Presents Jazz series concerts can be purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312-294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604. Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in advance or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-294- 3040. Artists, programs and prices are subject to change. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO. The Symphony Center Presents (SCP) Jazz Series is sponsored by Exelon. # # # Symphony Center Presents Friday, December 4, 2015, 8:00 p.m. Jazz Echoes with a Friend with Geri Allen, Danilo Pérez and the McCoy Tyner Trio Geri Allen, piano Danilo Pérez, piano McCoy Tyner Trio McCoy Tyner, piano Gerald Cannon, bass Francisco Mela, drums Tickets: $28-$89 McCoy Tyner McCoy 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 horn men. 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 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, Guitars, features the stellar rhythm section of McCoy 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 is a CD/DVD featuring state-of-the-art technology that allows the viewer to manually choose which musician(s) they would like to view in the studio at any time during each track. In 2009, Tyner released 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. Geri Allen An internationally renowned pianist, composer, and educator, Geri Allen was first exposed to jazz while listening to her father’s Charlie Parker records as a child growing up in Detroit. She received her early music education at Cass Technical High School and the Jazz Development Workshop, where she became skilled in composing and arranging.