Jazz Articles about Cecil Taylor

About Cecil Taylor

Radio & Podcasts

Cecil Taylor Live in Padua, 1975

by Centro d'Arte Padova
April 29, 2018

For our first contribution to All About Jazz's Mixcloud column, we celebrate the musical genius, free spirit and unbounded creativity of Cecil Taylor. We decided to start with one of the gems from our vaults: a historic recording of his first (and only) concert in Padua, Italy, in 1975. Listen to twenty five minutes of breathtaking musical inventions! This installment is part of “From the Archive," a series curated by Centro d'Arte Padova that will present unreleased excerpts ...

Profile

Cecil Taylor: 1929-2018

by Karl Ackermann
April 7, 2018

As he approached the age of ninety, Cecil Taylor could be excused for some of his indulgences. Still highly opinionated on a range of subjects; still chain smoking, still harboring old resentments, and so on. For a man from whom new ideas sprang constantly and effortlessly, Taylor could get stuck in real-world dramas. He had a patriarchal legacy that held him above the everyday judgments of other mortals; he was a founding father of free jazz, a co-founder of the ...

Interview

Intervista a Stefano Zenni, direttore artistico di Metastasio Jazz

by Neri Pollastri
February 6, 2018

Storico del jazz e musicologo tra i più apprezzati del nostro paese, docente nei conservatori, brillante conferenziere, collaboratore di Radio Rai, autore di libri fondamentali come Storia del Jazz. Una prospettiva globale (Stampa Alternativa, 2012) e Che razza di musica. Jazz, blues, soul e le trappole del colore (EDT, 2016), Stefano Zenni è da molti anni Direttore Artistico di Metastasio Jazz, rassegna invernale che si svolge a Prato. Lo abbiamo intervistato nel corso del festival di quest'anno per farci raccontare ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Live In The Black Forest

Read "Live In The Black Forest" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
May 9, 2016

A retrospective look at the sixty-year career of Cecil Taylor, in progress at the Whitney Museum of American Art, incorporates the museum's unobstructed spaces and impressive views of New York City with multimedia documentation of the great composer/pianist's sixty years of creative invention. That openness is emblematic of Taylor's own absence of artistic boundaries. He has worked with dancers, poets, filmmakers and playwrights all while creating the most innovative avant-garde music that modern jazz has to offer. Throughout his career ...

Multiple Reviews

Solitudini pianistiche in casa Hat

by Alberto Bazzurro
March 7, 2016

Una gran bella infornata di album editi nel giro di pochi mesi dalla HatOlogy ci consente una quanto mai istruttiva panoramica su una delle formule più classiche del jazz (e del resto non solo di quello) come il pianoforte solo. Con qualche disseppellimento degno di particolare attenzione. Cecil Taylor Garden 1st Set HatOlogy Valutazione: * * * * ½ Ci riferiamo, in questo senso, ai due volumi (separati) che mettono ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Garden 2nd Set

Read "Garden 2nd Set" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
March 2, 2016

Years after this 1981 performance at a Swiss venue, pianist Cecil Taylor advised producer Werner X Uehlinger that this was his best solo concert, as the 2nd Set chronicles the order of performance and follows up the 2015 reissue of Garden 1st Set (hatOLOGY, 2015). And to cite the often-used movie critic adjective, this concert was truly riveting. Taylor performs on a 92-key Bosendorfer piano, providing extra bass keys to bottom F. Taylor proffers a detailed soundstage amid ...

Album Review

Cecil Taylor: Garden 1st Set

Read "Garden 1st Set" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 25, 2015

I dare you to put a Cecil Taylor record on the turntable (or press play on that download) and leave the room. You can't. His energy, mojo, or maybe voodoo is so strong, that your escape is impossible. It's as simple as that.Taylor is a force of nature. An irrepressible pianist, poet, philosopher jazzman. His performances are legendary, and this 1981 concert in Basel Switzerland is a gem. First released by Hat Hut Records (now hatOLOGY) in a ...