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Cecil Taylor: Mixed to Unit Structures Revisited
by Chris May
This story has been revisited before, in the context of an Albert Ayler review, but good stories bear repeating, particularly when they are instructive ones. So here it is again... During a May 2021 interview with All About Jazz, the reed player Shabaka Hutchings was asked to name six albums which had made a more than usually deep impression on him. One of those Hutchings chose was Cecil Taylor's Silent Tongues: Live At Montreux '74 (Freedom, 1975). “This ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor Quintet: Lifting The Bandstand
by Mark Corroto
No other artist, except maybe Miles Davis, created the sort of event/happening that surrounded a Cecil Taylor performance. As Taylor's career advanced from the 1960s on, his presentation became an almost pure expression, one not limited by the terms 'jazz,' 'poetry,' and 'dance.' Of the many chapters his art held, for many fans it is Taylor's travels to Europe that define his career. Much of it is documented in the coveted In Berlin '88 (FMP, 1989) eleven ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor: Mixed to Unit Structures Revisited
by Giuseppe Segala
La pubblicazione di Mixed To Unit Structures, nella meritevole collana Revisited Series della Ezz-thetics, sotto-etichetta della svizzera Hat Hut, riunisce due date di registrazione importanti nella vicenda di Cecil Taylor, distribuite tra l'ottobre 1961 e il maggio 1966. La prima, composta dai tre brani “Pots," “Bulbs" e “Mixed," era stata pubblicata dall'etichetta Impulse! nel disco Into the Hot, a nome di Gil Evans. I successivi quattro pezzi costituivano il disco Unit Structures, siglato originariamente da Blue Note. ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor: Mixed To Unit Structures Revisited
by Mark Corroto
A listener could make it their life's work to absorb and appreciate the music the music of Cecil Taylor. One could possibly approach it as a scholar and musician through notation and transcription—not the recommended approach. Such a task would be similar to the process of systematizing a DNA sequence. Taylor's music, and pardon this analogy, might be best grasped as one might attend to the oxymoronic genre noise music. If you are still reading, allow an explanation. ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor & Tony Oxley: ...Being Astral And All Registers - Power Of Two...
by Karl Ackermann
The late free jazz icon Cecil Taylor was thought to have only recorded two duo albums in his career. One was Embraced (Pablo, 1977) with Mary Lou Williams, the other, Historic Concerts (Soul Note, 1984) with Max Roach. Both were underwhelming mismatches, with Taylor overpowering his partners. In 2020, drummer Tony Oxley found two live Taylor-Oxley recordings in his personal archives, housed in a basement in Germany. Birdland, Neuburg (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2020) was released in the Spring of that year, ...
Continue ReadingThe Experimentalists: George Russell, Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy (1956-1960)
by Russell Perry
In the wake of Charles Mingus, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins came a wave of players eager to experiment further within the broadening definition of jazz. Among the most durable of this next generation are composer George Russell, pianist Cecil Taylor, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman and multi-reed player Eric Dolphy. The late 1950s recordings of Russell, Taylor, Coleman and Dolphy in this hour of Jazz at 100. Playlist Host Intro 0:00 George Russell Sextet “Concerto for Billy the ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor
by John Eyles
On April 5th 2018, the world lost pianist, composer, poet and iconoclast Cecil Taylor, at age 89. Taylor was the last surviving member of a generation of players who gave birth to the music variously labelled as avant-garde, fire music or free jazz, although some sources jointly credit Taylor and Ornette Coleman as its originators. A native New Yorker, Taylor received piano lessons by the age of five, taught by his mother. A childhood classical-piano prodigy, he studied ...
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