Cecil Taylor: Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts

Another insanely good Record Store Day release from Elemental Music, Fragments, The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts, is available as a limited-edition, 180-gram, 3-LP gatefold set or as your standard 2-CD version, but truth be told and told plainly, any version will serve one well.

Talk about rumble in the jungle. Fragments, The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts pushes at you like a gang fight on the 49-minute "Fragments of a Dedication to Duke Ellington Evening Set Version." Pianist Cecil Taylor, Jimmy Lyons screaming on alto, Sam Rivers blurring tenor/soprano saxophones and flute, and nothing less than a seemingly pissed-off but inspired Andrew Cyrille bashing away. The Cecil Taylor Unit, in what is arguably their collective prime, taking no bulls#$!. Taking no quarter.

As there is with most of these special RSD releases, Fragments, The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts has a story behind the music and the recording. That story is told with an exceptionally lively and pugilistic performance. It is the story of aggression when, in the hands of artists trying to sculpt a narrative to be fathomed and discussed by all within earshot, is the aggression of our better angels.

Part One of the afternoon set, "Fragments of a Dedication to Duke Ellington," erupts from the lava flow of the first track with a Taylor tsunami that Cyrille insists on punching up against. The combatants go at it for a good while as Taylor attempts to overwhelm his rival with a fury of notes. Rivers' flute slices like an alarm. Lyons flares SOS. Into the night at Salle Pleyel, traditionally, until this very moment, the home of revered classical performances, Taylor literally howls at history and tradition, tearing the curtain, exposing the new now. "Fragments of a Dedication to Duke Ellington, Afternoon Set Version: Part 2" punches away until the ring is empty of challengers.

Produced by the seemingly inexhaustible Zev Feldman, Fragments, The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts includes a generous booklet featuring rare concert photographs by Jean-Pierre Leloir, Jan Persson, and Christian Rose. Phil Freeman, author of the definitive In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor, provides the informed liner notes. Contemporary testimonies from Cyrille, the late Jack DeJohnette, Matthew Shipp, and others make for a great read as well as a great listen.