Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor & Han Bennink - Spots, Circles, and Fantasy (1988) {FMP CD5 rel 1989}
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© 1989 FMP | CD 5
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano / Drums

Here we go: two of the most unruly cats ever to sit behind anything, let alone a piano and a set of drums. This set was recorded in 1988, when Cecil Taylor spent a month in Germany making all sorts of musical mischief. At nearly 74 minutes, this is a mammoth duet, or at least one would think so, but apparently not these two. Judging by the energy exerted at the end when compared to that at the beginning, they were just getting revved into action. Things begin with Bennink at a furious tempo, making sounds on everything on the kit but the skins themselves.

Max Roach and Cecil Taylor - Historic Concerts (1979) {Soul Note 121 100/1 -2 rel 1984}
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© 1979, 1984 Soul Note | 121 100/1 -2
Jazz / Post-Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano / Drums

Drummer Max Roach met up with the intense avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor for a 1979 concert that resulted in this double CD. After Roach and Taylor play separate five-minute solos (Taylor's is surprisingly melodic and bluesy), they interact during a two-part 78-minute encounter that finds Roach not shy of occasionally taking control. The passionate music is quite atonal but coherent, with Taylor displaying an impressive amount of energy and the two masters (who had not rehearsed or ever played together before) communicating pretty well. This set is weakened a bit by a 17-minute radio interview that includes excerpts from the concert one just heard, although some of the anecdotes are interesting. No revelations really occur in the music, but it certainly holds one's interest.

Cecil Taylor - Jazz Advance (1956) {Blue Note CDP 7 84462 2 rel 1991}
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© 1956, 1991 Transition / Blue Note / Capitol | CDP 7 84462 2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Piano

One of the best pre-1960 sessions by Cecil Taylor, recorded in Boston in 1956, and originally issued on the totally rare Transition label in a very small pressing! Taylor's playing here with the great bassist Buell Neidlinger, one of his prime compaitriots in the early days, and the trio (with Dennis Charles) is joined by Steve Lacy on a few tracks. The session's a great way to hear Taylor's development at the beginning, as it includes a number of jazz standards – like "Azure", "Sweet & Lovely", and "Bemsha Swing" – all given an off-kilter twist by Taylor and group. This is probably best heard on one of the album's highlights – a 9 minute solo reading of Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To"!

Avant-garde icon Cecil Taylor has a superfluity of gems in his catalogue, but his recordings from the early 1960s have a special significance in that they represent the pianist's transition from a traditional post-bop approach to his more abstract stylings. Lyrical, bluesy, and driven by bold improvisation, 1960's Air is an excellent example of Taylor's early work. Along with saxophonist Archie Shepp (who sits in on two numbers) and a sharp, tight-knit rhythm section, Taylor can be heard stretching the jazz canvas of the era, forming the radical vocabulary he would master on landmark albums like 1966's Unit Structures. Air is a must for Taylor fans, and is also a good entry point for those who find his later work too jarring or abrasive.

This double-LP is the only recording that exists of Cecil Taylor and his group (other than two songs on the bootleg Ingo label) during 1962-1965. Taylor's then-new altoist Jimmy Lyons (who occasionally hints at Charlie Parker) and the first truly "free" drummer Sunny Murray join the avant-garde pianist in some stunning trio performances recorded live at the Cafe Montmartre in Copenhagen. ~ AllMusic