Cecil Taylor Music

"One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye." Okay, so we have no idea what the title means, but this album is without a doubt one of CT's best. The band is CT and the Unit (Jimmy Lyons (alto), Raphe Malik (trumpet), Ramsey Ameen (violin), Sirone (bass), and Ronald Shannon Jackson (drums)) and the recording is from a live concert in Stuttgart from 1978. I am a big fan with a large CD collection of CT, but this one never made it in until just recently -- mainly because I tend to shy away from CT's larger ensemble groups especially when Lyons is involved, not to mention this is a costly double-album purchase. But I finally picked it up at a bargain and now I see what I was missing. Maybe there's something about Germany that seems to always gets CT fired up, or maybe it's Ronald Shannon Jackson here, but the CTU is simply rocking out on this album.

It turns out there was no reason for me to be wary about a larger ensemble group. On disc 1 of this special edition Hatology re-release, there are essentially no passages of full sextet. Instead, the first short track is an explorative duet with Lyons and Malik, the second has Ameen and Sirone (mostly arco after a brief start at pizacatto) dialoguing while the third is a Jackson drum solo. The liner notes say this was CT's tour strategy of generating a "certain type of intensity" before he took the stage. Certainly there's some anticipation, and it is fully satisfied with tracks 4 and 5, which are essentially just one 50-minute tune. And what a powerhouse tune it is... the horns are there briefly in the beginning to state a theme, but the rest has CT going at it with Jackson, Sirone, and Ameen sans horns and it's some of the very best trio and quartet music I've heard from CT and I've heard a lot. CT is in the best form of his career as he displays his usual virtuouso's palette of madcap runs and cascading power chords. I'm a particular fan of Jackson here -- he's certainly cut his teeth and he's not content with just embellishing -- he duels with reckless abandon, but doesn't clash with CT. Sirone's bass is amply miked throughout, making for a nice upfront bass sound, and the whole concert is recorded and mixed very cleanly. What else can I say but that the music rocks -- CT is aggressive and at his best, and Jackson really adds to the intensity.

Disc 2 essentially picks right up where the 70+ minutes of disc 1 left off, with the first 15 minutes of track 1 continuing with trio and quartet work. About half way though, the horns join in for some relaxed explorations where they're playing on top of each other -- honestly, this is the kind of CTU playing that I don't particularly care for. But it's short-lived and soon Lyons yields to Malik as he takes the first extended solo -- he's got a bracing, brassy, and almost vibrato tone and his solo matches the aggression on disc 1. Track 2 is then a showcase for Jimmy Lyons and he takes off on a characteristic extended solo backed by the quartet. I must say I'm not a huge Lyons fan, but his blowing here is pretty damn good and later Ameen, CT, and Jackson match his intensity for some dense, multi-layered mayhem. Lyons' solo ends with applause from the crowd, and track 3 starts with CT displaying his typical rage and fury in solo without the group. Then drums (Jackson now more restrained) and bass join in for trio music, and then at 20 minutes, Ameen enters with some classical sounding lines. He then takes the lead solo with the quartet before things finally mellow out and come to a close.

And so, any reservations I had about the album were completely unfounded and in fact this may be Cecil's greatest concert on disc. CT is at the height of his powers and instrumentation-wise there are all kinds of variations, with minimal overlap of sax and trumpet, which is good news to me. The ensemble playing is similar then to "Dark Unto Themselves," but there is so much more here too -- CT soloing, CT with a power-trio, Ameen on strings, Jackson's fierce battery, and the fine solos by Malik and Lyons on disc 2. The only thing missing is any poetry, chanting, or vocalisms -- good riddance for some, no doubt. For me, having amassed some 50 CT discs, I thought I'd heard it all, but this is simply awesome.

This is arguably Cecil Taylor's greatest post-1965 recording. "One Too Many Salty . . ." features the same lineup as the "Black Forest" album, but here the ensemble is documented in their full extensive glory on two CDs that are each over 70 minutes in duration. The CD version of the recording is augmented by three additional tracks that were not present on the original LPs: a duet between Jimmy Lyons/Raphe Malik; a duet between Ramsey Ameen/Sirone; and a drum solo by Ronald Shannon Jackson. Then Taylor arrives on stage and the ensemble is off and running for a long, sprawling, continuous piece that is marked by inspired playing with ebbs and flows that demand the listener's full attention. If you get a chance to purchase this recording, do not hesitate to do so. This will likely be a permanent fixture in your collection, if you enjoy some of Taylor's denser recordings.

Basically, if you like the "Black Forest" recording, you will also likely enjoy "One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye." If you have a hard time getting into Taylor's denser work, this is one you can skip. This title, unbelievably, is currently out-of-print (which is insane for a recording that won Down Beat's 1981 Record of the Year), but it will be reissued eventually and it does live up to all the expectations one might have of it.

"One Too Many Salty Swift And Not Goodbye" is one Cecil Taylor's best albums, and a personal favorite. Recorded live in Germany in 1978, the original vinyl release was awarded the 1981 Record of the Year in the Down Beat Critics Poll. This album features one of the great editions of the Cecil Taylor Unit -- Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Raphe Malik on trumpet, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Sirone on bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums. (It's the same lineup that is on the classics "Cecil Taylor Unit" and "3 Phasis.") The first three tracks (bonus material on the CD) of the album begin with duets between members of the Unit, and it is not until the fourth track that the full sextet with Taylor plays. The album proceeds to soar and probe the unique, intense, complex music of Cecil Taylor for more than 2 hours! After this lengthy frenetic sound exploration and explosion, the concert ends with Taylor playing some of the most delicate, sublime notes since Grieg's "Lyric Pieces." It's the perfect conclusion and probably one of the reasons I love this album, looking forward to that statement of peace and beauty after all the upheavel. Now the reason I say this album is a great value is that this is actually a 2 CD set (even though it's not indicated above, the track listing is the same as the 2 CD set I own), which makes this $12 per disc, the same price as a domestic. It's not often that you get that kind of value in an import purchase. And if that isn't enough of an incentive, most avant-garde jazz Hat Art CDs have been deleted in recent years, so you'd be wise to buy "OTMSSANG" asap.

months have gone by without this cd being on my player, which can be said about probably any cd i own at a given time, but the owner of the riverbank has the distinction of being the only cd i own that i think about almost every morning or evening i go near my cd player.

i love cecil taylor's playing. unfortunately, some of the groups with which he's recorded is a lot of noise, making for a poor setting for his playing.

i've never heard of the italian instabile band, but they complement cecil taylor's playing. my only complaint would be there isn't more cecil taylor.

taylor, influenced by duke ellington and thelonius monk, always plays ordered, structured, compositions. for an early recording that shows his development, listen to jazz advance by cecil taylor.

I could not find where the precious dialogue occurs in this situation, my prejudice is that I really only like Cecil ALONE, SOLO, there really is nothing that compares with that, even his Black Saint vinyls with Max Roach comes close, Roach is a solo player himself, see him just with cymbals; fantastic.

The Orchestra here yes is well versed in avant-gardy stuff,but why simply just DROP IT in this improvisation, which is what happens most of the time, Taylor then simply is TAYLOR, he plays, and again I don't see where the two connect,no combusatible energy is created between the two frictions, just unresolved, uninteresting tensions that GO NOWHERE. i really would have liked simply to hear what Cecil was playing.
Also in a situation like this if it is a CONCERTO (that is a fascinating idea for Taylor, to subvert the original genre)whatever Taylor plays is suppose to work its way like algae,or via osmosis through the musical membranes in a pond to the other musical ideas to give them life,to nurture them; that didn't happen either. All this avant-gardy stuff extended techniques, atonal double-stops,Am Steg,Sul Flautato,tapping the bodies of instruments, tremoli, plucked strings is great if you find a powewrful context for it as Xenakis(Synphai(sp wrong)(piano concerto) and Nono(Fragmente, STille An Diotema, string quartet) and Stockhausen and Cage have done. Here it is like stuff floating in the water waiting for someone to make sense out of it, like a clipper ship went down and you walk on the seashore and see all the debris, artifacts of humanity that once had a purpose.

First, if you haven't read weirdears review below already, please do so now. I have been trying to write a review of this piece for several weeks and never found the right approach. wierdears has relieved me of that burden and I thank him. He has a much getter depth of knowledge of Cecil Taylor's work (I am familiar with only about 8-10 CDs of Taylor's and have never had the good fortune to see him live) than I do and he puts it to good use.
Having said that, I do want to add a few caveats. I came to this piece not only a fan of Cecil's but of the Italian Instabile Orchestra. I love their own work and their own musical ethos. If you want to get to know that group better and/or to hear them at their best, this is not the CD to go to. They are arguably the best collective of composers and soloists working in creative improv orchestra music today. They play beautifully on this CD but they never really solo and their own musical personalities are submerged completely in Taylor's. I want to commend them on that- this is something that the Italians seem so willing to do (obvious to anyone who knows Tiziano Tononi's great homage projects to Don Cherry and Rahsaan Roland Kirk). The members of the IIO, all of whom are leaders of their own projects, some of whom have appeared on hundreds of CDs, admire Taylor enormously and give themselves over to this project. weirdears is right- the liner notes by Marcello Lorrai are very helpful but weirdears leaves out one aspect of Taylor's method- for the most part he left the players to figure out what he wanted musically while putting the piece together. The impression one gets from the notes is that the IIO players found this to be frustrating, exhilirating, insane and perfect- it forced them out of their own methodologies both as individuals and a group. The concert on this CD took place in Ruva, Italy on Sept. 10th, 2000. The liner notes point out that a year and a half later at the Banlieues Blues Festival in Paris, Taylor and the IIO performed together again with a new score based on Taylor's trust and knowledge of what the IIO players had to offer him. That later piece is one I would love to hear as well.
My second caveat is about Taylor's playing. weirdears feels that Taylor is entering a new phase of his oeuvre. Probably so. But don't come to this record expecting Taylor's usual tsunami of piano sound. The piano is there but even as its most tumultuous, it is softer, more calm than is his norm. I am afraid that I assumed that some of that was Taylor getting older and maybe less able to play that enormously physical style that he created. Maybe it's both- Taylor is getting older and he is adapting his music. Or maybe the music is adapting him, as weirdears suggests. Make no mistake- I love what Taylor has wrought on this piece- it is just not what I expected. And maybe that's all my caveats amount to- that this CD is not what I hoped for- the IIO unleashed with Taylor at full throttle cavorting around the Italians. In any case, the members of the IIO, seemed to have loved the experience. Pino Minafra , one of the co-founders and leaders of the IIO (although as far as I can tell at least ten of the members can claim to be co-founders and leaders), wrote this of the meeting:
'The conjunction of "the great spirit of CECIL TAYLOR and the freest soul of the ITALIAN INSTABILE ORCHESTRA united in a unique CRY of LOVE, JOY and FREEDOM" generated the highest levels of musical expression ever reached by the Ochestra.' (I have changed the punctuation somewhat-GT).
My last caveat is that of the ending-it is hard to tell but it almost sounds as if the piece were cut off on the CD. The music just disappears. The CD is enhanced with a short video clip and a .pdf file of the Italian liner notes in the Italian. It would be sad if the music were shortened to include these bonuses. Hopefully, I am wrong about this.

I didn't know what to expect when I bought this album. The most
recent Cecil Taylor CD I owned was recorded in 1990. I was also
suspicious because Cecil was playing with an orchestra. I feared
that this meant that Cecil's creativity would be hampered by a
large group of non-improvising players. I also feared that a
seventy year old Cecil would be unable to play with the same
power and fluency that he commanded when he was younger. I was
wrong on all counts.

The Owner of the River Band is equal in greatness to any music,
jazz or classical, that I have ever heard. It is jazz in that
all the players improvise. Due, however, to Cecil's demanding
standards and overall shaping of the material, this music is
ordered as rigorously as anything composed by Iannis Xenakis or
Eliot Carter. While Cecil's power and ferocity is as much in
evidence as it has ever been, it is balanced by quiet sections
of weird beauty. I say weird beauty because it sounds unlike
anything I have ever heard. Every time I play this album, I
encounter things that I didn't notice on previous hearings.

Instead of Cecil's technique decreasing because of age, it has
if anything increased. Cecil has always been known for playing
loud and fast. In this album, he plays soft and fast which is far more difficult. He also plays with a tonal beauty that I have never heard before; and during one part of the piece, he reaches into the piano and plucks its strings. It is true that he isn't as prominent as he is in other recordings. Here he is first among equals. He didn't intend to showcase himself in this
recording. As I mentioned earlier, this is an orchestral
composition; it is not a piano concerto. It is an album that I
will return to again and again. I would urge anyone who cares
about modern music, be it jazz or classical, to invest in this
album. There is nothing better to be found in either genre.

Just when I think I've got a hold of Cecil Taylor and I can predict where he's going next he develops a whole new direction that opens up new vistas. Taylor's work through the late 80s and 90s often began to sound distressingly familiar. Part of the problem was that much of the recorded material was done during one year and released by FMP slowly through the 90s, giving too much weight to a particular period of the pianist's development. Also, loosing Jimmy Lyons in 1987 was a particularly difficult blow to Taylor, one that forever would change his music. But Cecil is nothing if not resourceful and a genius. This disc represents a new high in his output, and a rare recorded example of his large group work.

Recorded in Italy in 2000, Owner of the Riverbank is one of Cecil Taylor's most ambitious scores. It was concieved for the Italian Instabile Orchestra, an ensemble of 18 improvising wind, string and brass instruments. Percussion includes not only standard trap set, but orchestral percussion including timpani. The liner notes describe the rehearsal process for the concert and represent probably the best description of Taylor's working processes that I've ever read. Taylor doesn't work from a traditional score, nor does he work from a traditional composer's ideas of authority and control. A score by Taylor is a blueprint over which members of the ensemble add their own personality and ideas. Yet, each moment of this work is dominated by Cecil's presence and signature ideas. From this vague and unstructured beginning the final product ends up sounding intricately structured, with suggestions of chord changes, predetermined scales, and even a number of almost Ellingtonian melodies welling up out of the general chaos.

Owner of the Riverbank also features a more extended use of orchestral color than is evident from many Taylor CDs. The opening of the work is extraordinary, featuring a delicate, chamber ensemble of strings, percussion and piano. Though Taylor is known for his thunderous percussive technique on his instrument, his playing also features moments of extreme delicacy and lyrical effusion. The piece builds from this extended opening, breaking into thunderous waves of sound and then gelling into broad melancholy melodies, particularly effective in the unison trumpet line about a third of the way through the piece.

Large group Cecil can be bewildering for a first time listener. Even for those of us who are seasoned Taylor afficienados the large group work on disc can be forbidding. Having recently seen one of Taylor's big band concerts at the Irridium, I realized that the visual element in this music is extremely important. When attending a live concert of this music you can choose what lines to follow by focusing your eyes on certain players and letting the rest of the sound wash over your ears....or you can open your focus to the caterwaul. Either way, a Taylor performance is interactive and the visual is an important tool
to make this journey. Fortunately, this CD includes a short video segment that helps achieve at least a little of this effect. From what is evident in the video, the live performance must have been a truly spectacular experience.

All in all, this is one of the best Cecil Taylor releases of the past ten years, and along with Taylor's duo with Mat Manieri, recently released on Bridge records, is the harbinger of a major new period in the composer's development. (This is also confirmed by several recent live performances Cecil has given around New York and environs.) This should not be your first Cecil album. The work from 60s on Blue Note is much better as an introduction to the Taylor style. But this is a wonderful disc for CT fans, and a source of endless fascination. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on this disc. It's worth it.

months have gone by without this cd being on my player, which can be said about probably any cd i own at a given time, but the owner of the riverbank has the distinction of being the only cd i own that i think about almost every morning or evening i go near my cd player.

i love cecil taylor's playing. unfortunately, some of the groups with which he's recorded is a lot of noise, making for a poor setting for his playing.

i've never heard of the italian instabile band, but they complement cecil taylor's playing. my only complaint would be there isn't more cecil taylor.

taylor, influenced by duke ellington and thelonius monk, always plays ordered, structured, compositions. for an early recording that shows his development, listen to jazz advance by cecil taylor.

I could not find where the precious dialogue occurs in this situation, my prejudice is that I really only like Cecil ALONE, SOLO, there really is nothing that compares with that, even his Black Saint vinyls with Max Roach comes close, Roach is a solo player himself, see him just with cymbals; fantastic.

The Orchestra here yes is well versed in avant-gardy stuff,but why simply just DROP IT in this improvisation, which is what happens most of the time, Taylor then simply is TAYLOR, he plays, and again I don't see where the two connect,no combusatible energy is created between the two frictions, just unresolved, uninteresting tensions that GO NOWHERE. i really would have liked simply to hear what Cecil was playing.
Also in a situation like this if it is a CONCERTO (that is a fascinating idea for Taylor, to subvert the original genre)whatever Taylor plays is suppose to work its way like algae,or via osmosis through the musical membranes in a pond to the other musical ideas to give them life,to nurture them; that didn't happen either. All this avant-gardy stuff extended techniques, atonal double-stops,Am Steg,Sul Flautato,tapping the bodies of instruments, tremoli, plucked strings is great if you find a powewrful context for it as Xenakis(Synphai(sp wrong)(piano concerto) and Nono(Fragmente, STille An Diotema, string quartet) and Stockhausen and Cage have done. Here it is like stuff floating in the water waiting for someone to make sense out of it, like a clipper ship went down and you walk on the seashore and see all the debris, artifacts of humanity that once had a purpose.

First, if you haven't read weirdears review below already, please do so now. I have been trying to write a review of this piece for several weeks and never found the right approach. wierdears has relieved me of that burden and I thank him. He has a much getter depth of knowledge of Cecil Taylor's work (I am familiar with only about 8-10 CDs of Taylor's and have never had the good fortune to see him live) than I do and he puts it to good use.
Having said that, I do want to add a few caveats. I came to this piece not only a fan of Cecil's but of the Italian Instabile Orchestra. I love their own work and their own musical ethos. If you want to get to know that group better and/or to hear them at their best, this is not the CD to go to. They are arguably the best collective of composers and soloists working in creative improv orchestra music today. They play beautifully on this CD but they never really solo and their own musical personalities are submerged completely in Taylor's. I want to commend them on that- this is something that the Italians seem so willing to do (obvious to anyone who knows Tiziano Tononi's great homage projects to Don Cherry and Rahsaan Roland Kirk). The members of the IIO, all of whom are leaders of their own projects, some of whom have appeared on hundreds of CDs, admire Taylor enormously and give themselves over to this project. weirdears is right- the liner notes by Marcello Lorrai are very helpful but weirdears leaves out one aspect of Taylor's method- for the most part he left the players to figure out what he wanted musically while putting the piece together. The impression one gets from the notes is that the IIO players found this to be frustrating, exhilirating, insane and perfect- it forced them out of their own methodologies both as individuals and a group. The concert on this CD took place in Ruva, Italy on Sept. 10th, 2000. The liner notes point out that a year and a half later at the Banlieues Blues Festival in Paris, Taylor and the IIO performed together again with a new score based on Taylor's trust and knowledge of what the IIO players had to offer him. That later piece is one I would love to hear as well.
My second caveat is about Taylor's playing. weirdears feels that Taylor is entering a new phase of his oeuvre. Probably so. But don't come to this record expecting Taylor's usual tsunami of piano sound. The piano is there but even as its most tumultuous, it is softer, more calm than is his norm. I am afraid that I assumed that some of that was Taylor getting older and maybe less able to play that enormously physical style that he created. Maybe it's both- Taylor is getting older and he is adapting his music. Or maybe the music is adapting him, as weirdears suggests. Make no mistake- I love what Taylor has wrought on this piece- it is just not what I expected. And maybe that's all my caveats amount to- that this CD is not what I hoped for- the IIO unleashed with Taylor at full throttle cavorting around the Italians. In any case, the members of the IIO, seemed to have loved the experience. Pino Minafra , one of the co-founders and leaders of the IIO (although as far as I can tell at least ten of the members can claim to be co-founders and leaders), wrote this of the meeting:
'The conjunction of "the great spirit of CECIL TAYLOR and the freest soul of the ITALIAN INSTABILE ORCHESTRA united in a unique CRY of LOVE, JOY and FREEDOM" generated the highest levels of musical expression ever reached by the Ochestra.' (I have changed the punctuation somewhat-GT).
My last caveat is that of the ending-it is hard to tell but it almost sounds as if the piece were cut off on the CD. The music just disappears. The CD is enhanced with a short video clip and a .pdf file of the Italian liner notes in the Italian. It would be sad if the music were shortened to include these bonuses. Hopefully, I am wrong about this.

I didn't know what to expect when I bought this album. The most
recent Cecil Taylor CD I owned was recorded in 1990. I was also
suspicious because Cecil was playing with an orchestra. I feared
that this meant that Cecil's creativity would be hampered by a
large group of non-improvising players. I also feared that a
seventy year old Cecil would be unable to play with the same
power and fluency that he commanded when he was younger. I was
wrong on all counts.

The Owner of the River Band is equal in greatness to any music,
jazz or classical, that I have ever heard. It is jazz in that
all the players improvise. Due, however, to Cecil's demanding
standards and overall shaping of the material, this music is
ordered as rigorously as anything composed by Iannis Xenakis or
Eliot Carter. While Cecil's power and ferocity is as much in
evidence as it has ever been, it is balanced by quiet sections
of weird beauty. I say weird beauty because it sounds unlike
anything I have ever heard. Every time I play this album, I
encounter things that I didn't notice on previous hearings.

Instead of Cecil's technique decreasing because of age, it has
if anything increased. Cecil has always been known for playing
loud and fast. In this album, he plays soft and fast which is far more difficult. He also plays with a tonal beauty that I have never heard before; and during one part of the piece, he reaches into the piano and plucks its strings. It is true that he isn't as prominent as he is in other recordings. Here he is first among equals. He didn't intend to showcase himself in this
recording. As I mentioned earlier, this is an orchestral
composition; it is not a piano concerto. It is an album that I
will return to again and again. I would urge anyone who cares
about modern music, be it jazz or classical, to invest in this
album. There is nothing better to be found in either genre.

Just when I think I've got a hold of Cecil Taylor and I can predict where he's going next he develops a whole new direction that opens up new vistas. Taylor's work through the late 80s and 90s often began to sound distressingly familiar. Part of the problem was that much of the recorded material was done during one year and released by FMP slowly through the 90s, giving too much weight to a particular period of the pianist's development. Also, loosing Jimmy Lyons in 1987 was a particularly difficult blow to Taylor, one that forever would change his music. But Cecil is nothing if not resourceful and a genius. This disc represents a new high in his output, and a rare recorded example of his large group work.

Recorded in Italy in 2000, Owner of the Riverbank is one of Cecil Taylor's most ambitious scores. It was concieved for the Italian Instabile Orchestra, an ensemble of 18 improvising wind, string and brass instruments. Percussion includes not only standard trap set, but orchestral percussion including timpani. The liner notes describe the rehearsal process for the concert and represent probably the best description of Taylor's working processes that I've ever read. Taylor doesn't work from a traditional score, nor does he work from a traditional composer's ideas of authority and control. A score by Taylor is a blueprint over which members of the ensemble add their own personality and ideas. Yet, each moment of this work is dominated by Cecil's presence and signature ideas. From this vague and unstructured beginning the final product ends up sounding intricately structured, with suggestions of chord changes, predetermined scales, and even a number of almost Ellingtonian melodies welling up out of the general chaos.

Owner of the Riverbank also features a more extended use of orchestral color than is evident from many Taylor CDs. The opening of the work is extraordinary, featuring a delicate, chamber ensemble of strings, percussion and piano. Though Taylor is known for his thunderous percussive technique on his instrument, his playing also features moments of extreme delicacy and lyrical effusion. The piece builds from this extended opening, breaking into thunderous waves of sound and then gelling into broad melancholy melodies, particularly effective in the unison trumpet line about a third of the way through the piece.

Large group Cecil can be bewildering for a first time listener. Even for those of us who are seasoned Taylor afficienados the large group work on disc can be forbidding. Having recently seen one of Taylor's big band concerts at the Irridium, I realized that the visual element in this music is extremely important. When attending a live concert of this music you can choose what lines to follow by focusing your eyes on certain players and letting the rest of the sound wash over your ears....or you can open your focus to the caterwaul. Either way, a Taylor performance is interactive and the visual is an important tool
to make this journey. Fortunately, this CD includes a short video segment that helps achieve at least a little of this effect. From what is evident in the video, the live performance must have been a truly spectacular experience.

All in all, this is one of the best Cecil Taylor releases of the past ten years, and along with Taylor's duo with Mat Manieri, recently released on Bridge records, is the harbinger of a major new period in the composer's development. (This is also confirmed by several recent live performances Cecil has given around New York and environs.) This should not be your first Cecil album. The work from 60s on Blue Note is much better as an introduction to the Taylor style. But this is a wonderful disc for CT fans, and a source of endless fascination. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on this disc. It's worth it.

Ever since I saw a clip of Cecil Taylor playing solo in Ken Burn's jazz series a few years ago, I have wanted to hear some of his solo playing. I remember the comment from someone in the film that when you hear Cecil Taylor playing you are constantly waiting for a slower pace in his playing to emerge which ultimately never occurs. That comment could serve as an accurate description of this CD, which was recorded live in Japan on May 29, 1973. Taylor plays at a relentless pace throughout the four songs on this CD, which are pretty much indistinguishable from one song to the next due to the dischordant nature of Taylor's playing and the constant flurries of notes which characterize each song. This CD is probably not for everyone. If you are expecting melodies or song structure (or even a relaxing solo piano CD), then stay away from this one. However, if you are a fan of Cecil Taylor's experiments in avant garde jazz, this is a very interesting and challenging listen. My only complaint is the sound quality of the recording. I literally have to crank my stereo up to hear this at what would be a normal volume. I expected a better sound from such a high priced import, but overall this doesn't take away from the quality of the music. If you are a fan of Cecil Taylor's music and don't have this one, give it a try. It's interesting to hear how he can make an acoustic piano sound unconventional.

Ever since I saw a clip of Cecil Taylor playing solo in Ken Burn's jazz series a few years ago, I have wanted to hear some of his solo playing. I remember the comment from someone in the film that when you hear Cecil Taylor playing you are constantly waiting for a slower pace in his playing to emerge which ultimately never occurs. That comment could serve as an accurate description of this CD, which was recorded live in Japan on May 29, 1973. Taylor plays at a relentless pace throughout the four songs on this CD, which are pretty much indistinguishable from one song to the next due to the dischordant nature of Taylor's playing and the constant flurries of notes which characterize each song. This CD is probably not for everyone. If you are expecting melodies or song structure (or even a relaxing solo piano CD), then stay away from this one. However, if you are a fan of Cecil Taylor's experiments in avant garde jazz, this is a very interesting and challenging listen. My only complaint is the sound quality of the recording. I literally have to crank my stereo up to hear this at what would be a normal volume. I expected a better sound from such a high priced import, but overall this doesn't take away from the quality of the music. If you are a fan of Cecil Taylor's music and don't have this one, give it a try. It's interesting to hear how he can make an acoustic piano sound unconventional.