Cecil Taylor S+D

x-post: sirone=> http://www.mindspring.com/~scala/sirone.htm

I really like 'artistry'.

Don't have all the FMPs but I'd say you should get one without a percussionist next. The one with parker and hosinger was really satisfying.

Wow, stence, that is very exciting. I will be there.

I own the 2 Ts For A Lovely T box. It's probably overpriced (especially when exchange rates - which were a lot better when I purchased it than they are now - and shipping to the US are factored in), but I've listened to it a lot, so I feel like I got my money's worth.

Did Cecil come out in his pajamas and bless the piano before he started playing? He did something like that both times I've seen him.

Yeah what was he writing?

http://www.sofamusic.no/musicians/tony_oxley.jpg

I thought the bassplayer would've been much better with a real standup. Even during his arco parts there didn't seem to be as many overtones as would be produced with a larger resonating body (altho some of the arco stuff kinda nicely sounded like the late Jimmy Lyons' sax stuff!).

Dunno what he was writing. I was hoping he'd recite a poem but no dice.

Lately I've been listening to Student Studies a lot.

http://www.kaufman-center.org/tc/mch0607/cj_101206.php

Cecil, Braxton, Parker and Oxley at the RFH last night:

Oh.
My.
Fucking.
God.

All other music please retire now.

Jazz Advance is a great entry point.

That sounds like an incredible show. (William Parker, I assume?)

Are they doing or did they do a record together?

I hope the concert was recorded, and if not, that they do make a record (yes, it was William P - with his immense bass, you understand why they call themselves the Feel Trio).

could someone describe CT's "jazz advance" lp for me, and perhaps mull it's merits as a starting point?

"Conquistador" is pretty classic, though admittedly the only one I've heard.

Springtime is Cecil Taylor time

So little interest in out stuff on ILM that when a new post pops up on a thread like this one I automatically half assume the subject has died.

could someone describe CT's "jazz advance" lp for me, and perhaps mull it's merits as a starting point?

Jazz Advance is, afaik, unlike any other Cecil Taylor records. blues-based jazz and not a "out there" record. it was years ago, but i tried a few others (silent tongues, cecil taylor unit) and JA is the only one i actually enjoy; probably on account of the relative straightforwardness of the music

i like a lot of "out" music, but I find Cecil (or at least most of the Cecil I've heard) to be kind of overwhelming. That's the idea, I know (or at least part of the idea) ... But it's not something I reach for very often. I certainly appreciate what he's doing. Would love to see him live, actually. The clips I've seen are kind of mind-boggling.

i'm hoping that cecil is the first eternal man

have been jamming that live in the black forest alb that's taken from a radio broadcast, amazing gig from the same era as IT IS IN THE BREWING LUMINOUS

JAZZ ADVANCE is a nice enough alb but it is not that far off monk or herbie nichols or even ellington, but cannot compare to most CT things that came after

Jazz Advance is, afaik, unlike any other Cecil Taylor records.

It's definitely more straightforward than everything he's best known for; the next step after Monk, basically. And if you like that side of him, you should check out his quartet with Archie Shepp, Buell Neidlinger and Denis Charles from the early '60s - albums to hear are Air, Cell Walk for Celeste, New York City R&B and The World of Cecil Taylor, all on the Candid label. They drift in and out of print, but they're findable.

amazing footage from youtube, can't think of another piano player who so dances around the keyboard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U01okZHnIQ&feature=related

tbh, i dont love nerfertiti like i do conquistador! or unit structures or looking ahead. i like air above buildings... a lot, and im warming up to 3 phasis... i think that may be all ive heard so far...

was all :-0 when I came across these paragraphs today in Up Above the World (1966) by Paul Bowles:

"Thorny finished his drink and held out his glass for more.

They listened while a plane flew over; when its roar had become only a reverberation passing farther down the valley, Thorny said, "Put on the new Cecil Taylor.""

Cecil Taylor wins the Kyoto prize.

Hope he doesn't blow it on coke, like (rumor has it) he did with his MacArthur grant money.

Hope he does

lol! Why the hell not.

?

In all seriousness, though, someone is peppering all Cecil's recent press with allegations of hard drug use. Looks odd, I have to say. Lot of nutters out there.

But no surprise that Cecil was an urbane intellectual type, given his background. Not that it made life any easier being black in the US at the time.

Yeah, I deal with this a little bit in the book, the fact (often unremarked-upon by critics) that Taylor was absolutely a scion of the early 20th century Black upper middle class, if not the Black aristocracy of the era; he says in an interview I quoted that his father had the only brick house on their block, and his (Cecil's) name appeared in the society columns of local newspapers when he was a kid — the family seems to have come through the Great Depression entirely unscathed, and some relatives on his father's side lived in a gigantic manor house near Boston (part of the reason he wound up at New England Conservatory, I think).

I just realized despite the fact I love him so much I have no idea about Taylor’s background. Looking forward to the book, etc.

most of what i know is from the A.B. Spellman book, which i highly recommend!

https://press.umich.edu/Books/F/Four-Jazz-Lives2

thanks budo jeru! i think his intro in the doc was more interesting, if only because he took me by surprise when he referred to bridges as a time-based form

stumbled onto this a while ago and most of what i know about him is from here:
https://unitstructures.commons.gc.cuny.edu/abstracts/

no problem. i don't get asked every day if i can recommend a print source for Cecil Taylor's thoughts on Calatrava, but when it does happen i'm ready

haha, does the Institute of Jazz Studies need a reference librarian?

Yeah, thanks for that link budo jeru.

of tangential interest: this blog posted an audio recording of an interview with chantal d'arcy from 1963, who started Shandar records in Paris in the early '70s with encouragement from CT, and also issued recordings by Taylor, as well as Sun Ra, Terry Riley, Pran Nath, and others:

https://blogthehum.com/2017/04/02/a-rare-wonderful-and-insightful-interview-with-chantal-darcy-founder-of-shandar-records-from-may-23-1973/

I just got around to reading last month’s issue of Downbeat and saw the excerpt from unperson’s book. Crazy that he didn’t have a will.

There's so much more to that whole sad saga in the actual book. I had to cut it down by a lot to fit what I could into the issue, but I had a long phone call with a surviving relative (a cousin or a niece, I was never 100% clear on their actual relationship) who told me all kinds of wild shit. And then when I talked to people who worked with him at the end of his life (his court-appointed guardian, the guys from the Whitney Museum) and mentioned her, they were like, "Oh, Vanessa..."

unperson, what's the best way to order the book at the moment?

Amazon in the US, direct from the publisher in Europe. (They ship worldwide with DHL, though. Expensive but quick.)