After leaving Coltrane, Tyner proved to be a much more innovative musician, translating Coltrane's visceral style into his own bebop-bred language. The Real McCoy (april 1967), for a quartet with tenor-saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Elvin Jones, was entirely composed by him and contained intense pieces such as the ballad Contemplation and the modal and polyrhythmic Passion Dance. Having acquired confindence in his compositional skills, Tyner embarked in a personal odyssey of textural exploration. Scoring for a nonet (Lee Morgan on trumpet, Julian Priester on trombone, James Spaulding on flute, Bennie Maupin on tenor saxophone, plus French horn, tuba, bass and drums) on Tender Moments (december 1967), particularly Man From Tanganika, helped sharpen his vision. The quartet of Time for Tyner (may 1968) with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Herbie Lewis and drummer Freddie Waits helped the vision cohere, particularly in African Village. Expansions (august 1968) was the first mature statement of the new style, boasting four lengthy intricate pieces performed by a septet (trumpeter Woody Shaw, altoist Gary Bartz, tenorist Wayne Shorter, cellist Ron Carter, Lewis and Waits): the vibrant Vision, the Eastern-sounding Song of Happiness, the convoluted Smitty's Place, the melancholy Peresina. The miscellaneous double LP Cosmos (july 1970) added two innovative pieces, the eight-minute Asian Lullaby and the 13-minute Forbidden Land, for a sextet of piano, flute (Hubert Laws) oboe (Andrew White), saxophone (Gary Bartz), bass and drums.

The sextet of Extensions (february 1970), featuring tenor/soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter, altoist Gary Bartz, harpist Alice Coltrane, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Elvin Jones, pushed the "orchestral" quality of the sound, that had been building up since the nonet session, to an higher degree while hinting at distant echoes of Africa and Asia, particularly in the 12-minute Message from the Nile (half way between modal jazz and John Coltrane's style) and the blistering, 13-minute Survival Blues. These albums shared some of the concerns with space and time of contemporary progressive-rock.

The same format (four lengthy pieces) was repeated on Asante (september 1970), although the line-up of piano, alto, guitar, bass and drums, augmented with African and Latin percussion, was less colorful. The 14-minute Malika used vocals to increase the link with ancestral Africa, while the 14-minute Fulfillment was the first significant display of Tyner's uncontrollable urge.

That massive, dense, percussive, chromatic style that released clusters of chords like shrapnel, became the trademark of Sahara (january 1972). If previous recordings had tried to create an orchestral effect by toying with the timbres of the instruments (such as harp and cello), Tyner was now achieving the same effect simply by pushing the limits of the piano. The quartet with saxophonist/flutist Sonny Fortune, Tyner doubling on flute and percussion, bassist Calvin Hill (doubling on reeds) and drummer Alphonse Mouzon (also doubling on reeds) performed the transition from the old, abstract and impressionistic, sound to the new, visceral and explosive, sound of the 23-minute Sahara. The African and East Asian elements were now fully amalgamated.

Song for My Lady (1972) contained two sessions, one (november 1972) with the same quartet (that produced Song for My Lady) and one (september 1972) with an expanded line-up (Charles Tolliver on flugelhorn, Michael White on violin and a conga player besides the quartet) performing the longer Native Song and Essence.

Ostensibly a tribute to Coltrane, the solo piano album Echoes of a Friend (november 1972) actually had a centerpiece, the 17-minute The Discovery, that showed how different his style was from the master's. Coltrane may have been the influence to achieve such a degree of intensity, and to integrate exotic elements, but the spiritual angst of the master was replaced by a vital energy of the opposite sign.

Tyner tested the limit of his compositional skills on the music for large ensemble of Song of the New World (april 1973). He then applied the lesson to the more manageable format of the saxophone-based quartet for the three-movement suite Enlightnment and the 24-minute Walk Spirit Talk Spirit, off the live Enlightnment (july 1973). Sama Layuca (march 1974) again expanded the format to an octet to take advantage of a broader palette of timbres (vibraphone, oboe, flute, Latin percussion), at the same time setting his modal explorations to an insistent rhythm, the result being the ebullient texture of Paradox.

But Tyner's compositional genius had peaked and was beginning to fade. The live double-LP Atlantis (august 1974) added Latin percussion to the traditional saxophone-based quartet but its main reason to exist was Tyner's spectacular performances in self-indulgent jams such as Atlantis, Makin' Out and Love Samba. After more than a decade, Tyner returned to the trio on Trident (february 1975), but, again, the album was mostly a display of his volcanic playing (also on celeste and harpsichord). Another attempt at scoring for a large ensemble, and this time with strings too (flutist Hubert Laws, piccolo, oboe, harp, six violins, two violas and two cellos, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Billy Cobham) on Fly with the Wind (january 1976) was again a mixed bag. Focal Point (august 1976) augmented the trio with three horns and Brazilian percussionist Guilherme Franco (but the best piece was the least Latin, Mode For Dulcimer). The Latin element was thankfully missing from Supertrios (april 1977), that contained two trio sessions, one with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams (with The Greeting) and one with bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Jack DeJohnette (with Consensus), but the trajectory was still downhill. Inner Voices (september 1977) experimented with horn section and vocals. Together (september 1978) wasted a formidable line-up (Hubbard, Laws, Bennie Maupin on clarinet, Hutcherson, Stanley Clarke on bass, Jack DeJohnette on drums and Bill Summers on percussion) on mediocre covers.

The four quartets (one with altoist Arthur Blythe, one with mandolinist John Abercrombie, one with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, one with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard) of Four Times Four (march 1980) were the best thing of the period. 13th House (october 1980) for big band, La Leyenda de La Hora (1981) for nonet, Dimensions (october 1984) for quintet, Double Trios (june 1986) for two trios or Revelations (october 1988) for solo piano were hampered by weak material and too many covers (or simply recycled his old classics). Tyner partially returned to form with the big-band efforts Uptown/Downtown (november 1988) and Turning Point (november 1991), but the 1990s saw an endless flow of terrible albums of all sorts (solo piano, trio, small ensemble, big band, even interpretations of classical music).

Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami