Space Attia Taylor

Expansive 13 disc (12 CDs + NTSC/Region 0 DVD) collection of solo material by Queen drummer Roger Taylor including albums from his side project The Cross. This box set celebrates his 35 years of activity outside of his `day job' in Queen…

Queen drummer Roger Taylor's first solo album is a fairly strong set of up-tempo rockers and well-written ballads featuring Taylor's rough voice and effective croon. Much of the material is reminiscent of Taylor's work for Queen - more guitar-based and less bombastic than the work of his cohorts in that band. That's not to say Taylor doesn't get over-dramatic. On "Future Management" and "Magic Is Loose," Taylor's vocals are quite over the top. However, "No Violins" and "Let's Get Crazy" balance things out with some fairly straightforward rock numbers that show the influence of 1950s rock & roll. Surprisingly, Taylor, who rarely wrote a ballad with Queen, shows himself quite adept at writing slower pieces on the lovely "Laugh or Cry"…

1989 (Taylor's Version) is the fourth re-recorded album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 27, 2023, via Republic Records. It is a re-recording of Swift's fifth studio album, 1989 (2014), and follows Speak Now (Taylor's Version) as her second album in 2023. Announced on August 9, 2023, at the final Los Angeles show of the Eras Tour, the album is a part of Swift's response to her 2019 masters dispute. The 21-track 1989 (Taylor's Version) contains re-recorded versions of 16 tracks from the deluxe edition of 1989 and five previously unreleased "From the Vault" tracks. Swift, Jack Antonoff and Christopher Rowe produced the majority of the album, with original collaborators Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella, Shellback and Imogen Heap returning to contribute again.

Danish multi-instrumentalist Robin Taylor has many outlets for his musical visions, one being his Taylor's Universe band. This group plays a more melodic and progressive style than his highly avant-garde/free jazz ensemble Taylor's Free Universe. With him on this project is sax legend Karsten Vogel, drummer Rasmus Grosell, flute/trombone/sax player Kim Menzer, guitarist Henning Plannthin, Jan Marsfeldt on keyboards, and Jytte Lindgerg on vocals. Taylor himself handles all sorts of instruments, like guitar, bass, keyboards, loops, and percussion. Experimental Health contains some very solid material, and in spots you will hear the band rocking out more than normal, yet there is also some very good jazz and fusion material here as well. Overall, this is a very enjoyable release from a batch of musicians that are helping to keep the spirit of avant-garde music alive, and doing a great job of it.

The U.S. release of Melvin Taylor's two early-'80s LPs by Evidence a decade later was a shock introduction to a blues guitarist who seemingly blazed out of nowhere – outside of Rosa's Lounge in Chicago, that is. "Blazed" is the right word, too, because Taylor is a total maximalist who unleashes torrents of notes to fill up every space. But he's so convincing a player that the concept of "blues guitar hero" might get a good name again, even with fans dead-tired of excess who never thought they'd think things like, "Man, can Melvin Taylor play the ever-loving (add the expletive superlative of your choice) out of the guitar" again. Taylor's first real-time release, Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band, is a pretty straightforward affair – basic trio with minimal overdubs, servicable vocals in an Albert King mode, and a mix of originals and very classic covers. The opening "Texas Flood" lets him rip on a slow blues, constantly changing up his playing with wah-wah blitzes as the real ace in his sonic hole.

Cecil Taylor - The Tree Of Life (1991) {FMP CD 98 rel 1998}
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© 1991, 1998 Free Music Production | FMP CD 98
Jazz / Modern Creative / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

This "thank you" concert to the city of Berlin at the end of Cecil Taylor's six-month stay there in 1990 is a lovely, vibrant affair. In trademark fashion, "The Tree of Life" is one work, broken up into five "periods" or movements. The invocation in period one doesn't even feature a piano, just empty space and Taylor's voice creating a kind of spirit ground for him to play from. "Period 2" is where things actually begin. Taylor begins in ballad form; long eighths and ninths are extended into minor-key formations and distillations of mode and harmonic interval. There is a kind of distended harmony at work, with left and right hands playing opposite each other in perfect formation and rhythm: One idea, or theme, cancels out the previous one and sets up a new paradigm for consideration over the course of a 12 or 13 measures.

Don’t take the title of James Taylor’s One Man Band literally—this 2007 concert recording may be stripped-down but it’s not just James and a guitar, he’s supported by keyboardist Larry Goldings, whom Taylor dubs his “one-man band” in the liner notes, as that’s all the backing band he has here. Fair enough. But this isn’t just a question of clever semantics: as it turns out, Goldings has quite a presence on this intimate album, recorded at a three-night stint at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA, during July 2007. During this 19-song set, Taylor gives Goldings plenty of space to grace the songs with solos that show up his jazz chops.