Happy Birthday Cecil Taylor

Another March birthday for an Avant-Garde legend.  Cecil Taylor turned 84 today.

I remember the moment when I first heard Taylor. I was listening to Jazz Advance on Blue Note Records. It has been a rollercoaster of awesome ever since.  

What's invigorating about Taylor's work is that he'll never break from his concepts.  During an era when so many musicians in the scene started to move towards more commercial aesthetics, Taylor would rather wash dishes than de-evolve his music.  It was this uncompromising mentality that has paid off for listeners.


One of my favorite Cecil Taylor albums is Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!.  Put out by the German label MPS in 1980, samples of this record are hard to come by on the internet.  But a few cuts from this solo release do exist on Youtube (and here, and here).  


Alternatively, I am leaving you with a solo piece that works in the same vein.  This  excerpt hails from Ron Mann's 1981 documentary "Imagine the Sound."

"Coltrane Time" - John Coltrane/"Hard Driving Jazz" - Cecil Taylor

There's a lot of diverse opinions about this recording session, and whether we hate or love it or don't get it, I think all fans of Coltrane and Taylor wonder, how would these two amazing individuals sounded together in 1965 or 1966?  This

 was originally recorded with Cecil Taylor as the leader.  It was

 produced by Tom Wilson, and being under pressure to appease the label heads, he pulled this line up together.  Five years after it was recored, it was issued with the title "Coltrane Time."  We have to remember that Taylor has already recorded "Jazz Advance" on Blue Note two years earlier where we could hear him already

 experimenting with the physicality of his music and the sporadic dissonance in his chords. But in this date 

he is put with more of a front line, and even though Coltrane was

 beginning to broaden his playing, he appears a little premature to be playing with Taylor, and ex-messenger Kenny Dorham seems way out of place.  

To sum it up, I think you get mainly two opinions about this record.  One is from new

 fans of Coltrane who are just diving in and lose grasp of Taylors concepts.  The other is fans of both Coltrane and Taylor and the "new sound" but understand that these artist just weren't

 meant to be.  I for one, am just gald that this recording was made possible and is available.  It's certainly worth the listen.

1958, United Artists/Blue Note-EMI.

J.Coltrane - TS, K.Dorham - Tr, C.Taylor - P, C.Israels - B, L.Hayes - Dr