While McCoy Tyner is known far and wide for his indelible influence on jazz piano, his contribution to the genre would still be staggering if he had decided to throw in the towel in 1965, after leaving John Coltrane’s quartet. However, a few years later he began releasing his own records with the help of a rotating cast of musicians including saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter, and his companion from the Coltrane days, drummer Elvin Jones. He continued to turn out lauded jazz music for decades, including his song “Happy Days,” which he wrote and recorded in 1995 for his album Infinity. Five years later, Tyner released a solo version of “Happy Days” that manages to capture its rollicking, joyous spirit and reanimate it using all the tools in the virtuoso’s toolbox.
Song of the Day: “Happy Days”
Max Gray
Read more of Max Gray at Big City Sasquatch or follow him on Twitter @City_Sasquatch. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Encounters, Mount Hope, Conte, tNY.press, and English Kills Review. He co-hosts the etymology podcast Words For Dinner and is a graduate of the Rutgers-Newark MFA program.