McCoy Tyner performs John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” in a rare solo piano performance, Hamburg, 1996. As Coltrane’s longtime collaborator, Tyner helped shape the harmonic language behind this landmark composition. Preserving moments like this connects us to the living lineage of jazz and the artists who carried it forward. | Jazz Foundation of America

“The real challenge is to find your own voice.” McCoy Tyner was born on this day in 1938, and that search for his own voice led to one of the most unmistakable sounds in modern jazz — that thunderous left hand, those stacked fourths, that spiritual lift in every chord. From his years in John Coltrane’s classic quartet to his expansive solo career, he kept pushing harmony, rhythm, and touch in ways that changed the piano vocabulary forever. 🎬 "Changes" w. Michael Brecker at Newport Jazz Festival