This is a new departure for Tyner – his only previous recording with strings (Blue Note, late 60s) remains unissued here, and, indeed, has only just been issued in the States. But this is no run of the mill strings session. It created music that is urgent, abandoned and often vigorously joyous. More importantly, the pressure of the strings frees Tyner’s piano from any role as a purely supportive fixture. The results are thickly textured and both melodically and rhythmically complex. Different tempos and rhythms are often opposed in a way that engenders great excitement – a description not usually relevant to jazz-with-strings orchestrations.
In Laws, Tyner has a virtuoso front-line partner, and their interplay on Salvadore De Samba and Fly With The Wind is especially felicitous. Curiously, Beyond The Sun is the pastorale, and the ballad You Stepped Out Of A Dream a dramatic, surging vehicle, making clever use of variation techniques and dissonance.
This is a record of considerable interest, even though it is not completely flawless. The ostinato motif that runs through You Stepped Out Of A Dream is a little mundane, and there are odd places where the strings sound incongruously sweet. Eddie Sauter’s string arrangements for Stan Getz’s Focus LP therefore remain a watershed in the genre. But this effort by Tyner should not be overlooked, for it possesses a winning boldness and vitality.
Discography
Fly With The Wind; Salvadore De Samba (20¾ min) – Beyond The Sun; You Stepped Out Of A Dream; Rolem (18 min)
Hubert Laws (f/alt-f); Paul Renzl (f/pic): Raymond Duste (ob); Tyner (p); Ron Carter (b); Billy Cobham (d); 6 vn, 2 vla, 2 clo, harp, tambourine. Berkeley, Calif. 19-21/1 /76.
(Milestone M-9067 £3.50)
