While Tyner is mostly known for being a long time pianist for Coltrane he also had a very fruitful and diverse solo career as well. Starting off with relatively conventional (but well made) albums he slowly diverged into more epic and more bombastic sounds. His style of playing gradually came to resemble the famous sheets of sound but in piano form. Song Of The New World truly is a bombastic large ensemble album that was made arguably during Tyner's most interesting phase. Afro Blue, the first track, should be the reason alone why you should give this album a shot but the whole experience is well worth your time as well. Tyner very skillfully juggles grand orchestral sounds and more conventional jazz arrangements with little dissonance in transitions between the two. Although the album is based around an orchestral setting Tyner absolutely is the focal point on every track with absolutely maddening fast improvisations and continuous rapid sheets of sound that make him tower over the whole orchestra. The only dude that manages to compare to him on this record is probably the drummer who manages to stitch everything together in a very fluid way. Good stuff.
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