Cecil Taylor S+D

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.

Ahhh - they should let the man be. He's created and played amazing music for so many years. His demons (or angels) are his to handle.

Damn right. It is his business how he spends his last bit of time on this rock and fuck gossip.

I don't care myself - I'm a huge fan. I actually think the idea of spending a massive grant on drugs is hilarious.

i think if you are 84 you should be allowed to use as many drugs as you want to, and supported by the state while doing so (but only while doing so)

Woke up this morning craving a Cecil Taylor Christmas LP

Ha, that would rule.

Cecil Taylor Class at Swing University, part of Jazz at Lincoln Center:
http://academy.jalc.org/swing-university-youngtaylor/
http://ticketing.jalc.org/auxpkg/detail.aspx?pkg=380&flex=N&nfs=N

I highly recommend anyone in the vicinity checking one or more of these classes out. I had the good fortune to hear Ben Young lecture about Cecil Taylor a number of years ago, and his insights continue to resonate with me.

you might have a problem with your eardrums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTwnwbG9YLE

lol

"The defendant befriended Mr. Taylor and won his trust," Kenneth Thompson, the district attorney, said in a statement, "which later made it easier for him to allegedly swindle this vulnerable, elderly and great jazz musician."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/12/us-usa-crime-taylor-idUSKBN0GC1GA20140812

A Cecil Taylor press conference is not like other press conferences:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/nyregion/man-accused-of-stealing-prize-money-from-jazz-genius.html?ref=arts&_r=0

Asked about what receiving the award was like, Mr. Taylor said “it was a thrilling moment,” though he had also received a MacArthur fellowship and a Guggenheim fellowship, and then, suddenly, he was talking about playing a nine-foot Bösendorfer piano in the basement of — here a reporter’s notes got hazy, finishing with the quote, “I had fun.”

That photo of everyone staring at him in total confusion and annoyance is great

Looking good!

great photo

this makes me so sad, but cecil seems to be taking it in stride

Too short, but very affecting piece by an Australian filmmaker doing a documentary on Cecil:
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/april/1427806800/amiel-courtin-wilson/cecil-taylor

AMAZING footage from Paris 1969 with Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, Sam Rivers on tenor sax, and Andrew Cyrille on drums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4HUWyGTu1I

This was part of a full European tour put together by George Wein and the Newport Jazz Festival, billed as bringing the Festival to Europe - Miles Davis's 1969 band (with Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette) was also on the bill. When I interviewed Taylor back in February, he told me he was walking around backstage and overheard Miles telling his (Davis's) band, "Don't listen to him - he's bullshittin'."

The irony of course being that, when Miles' band played in a manner not completely dissimilar to this (for which, see the Rome '69 show), Miles would say to them, "Hey, how come you never play like that when I'm soloing?"

(I imagine they thought, "Goddammit, make up your mind!")

Here's some even more amazing footage from 1974 - including poetry, and Cecil playing bells and the strings of the piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkZw7vbcIvY

dude who bilked him got 3 years in prison and returned 200k with a pledge, who knows of what worth, to pay back the rest

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/nyregion/man-who-stole-jazz-pianist-cecil-taylors-prize-money-is-sentenced.html

would seriously wish death upon that type of parasite.

C.T. shares your vibe on this q

“Where is he?” Taylor asked reporters of Muir after the proceeding. “Perhaps in the corner, talking to a roach?”

“He’s not a spiritual man. He will get what he deserves,” Taylor added.

Are there any Cecil documentaries (not clips from documentaries) online anywhere? I did run across Imagine the Sound which has a broader free-jazz focus. Would love to see Silent Eye or All the Notes if they're around

I worked on All The Notes in its early stages (editor). Was up on YT for a while. I need to rip my dvd copy. Once I do I'll post here.

Wow, that's excellent - hey, from what I've seen, Vimeo is the place people put their documentaries when they'd rather monetize through rental; there's a huge selection. That might be the place for you to put it up

I'm not sure but I may be the only person on earth who has listened to all of 2 Ts in one go (yesterday). Towards the end I felt like I was on some sort of mystical sweat lodge mushroom trip

Damn, there useta be a cool half-hour doc made for French TV documenting the late 1966 "Student Studies" quartet, but it's apparently taken down from YT in the past few months.

I should've worded that differently. I'll send you a WeTransfer link once ripped. If it's not available on YT or Vimeo that's probably the filmmaker's decision and I'm not gonna ignore that.

Aiet - thanks again

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/25/obituaries/buell-neidlinger-dies.html

Rest In Peace

Happy belated birthday CT

No official confirmation yet but word's going around Cecil's passed

Aw man. I was lucky to see him play up close maybe twelve years ago, an experience that will stay with me forever.

True Fire.

He passed earlier this evening, at home in Fort Greene.

I saw him play five times:

• in trio with Dominic Duval on bass and Jay Rosen on drums at the Village Vanguard in 1997
• leading a two-dozen-strong orchestra at the Knitting Factory on Leonard Street in 2002
• at Avery Fisher Hall, also in 2002 (half solo, half trio with Duval and Rosen again)
• in trio with Henry Grimes on bass and Pheeroan akLaff on drums at the Iridium in 2006
• at the Whitney Museum in 2016 with Okkyung Lee on cello, Harri Sjöström on sax, Jackson Krall on drums, and Tony Oxley on electronics

RIP

just last night picked up a copy of Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants) - I will blast it today

(re above release i had no idea he'd crossed paths with Tomasz Stanko)

saw him play in a trio with tony oxley and bill dixon in london maybe 10-15 years ago, it was a weird show but CT's solo section was outstanding

I love the album that Oxley/Dixon trio recorded at the Victoriaville Festival in Canada - I believe it was their debut performance, and it was much more Bill's show than Cecil's. The music was super spacious and drifting. It's the only time I've ever heard Taylor surrender to someone else's aesthetic so completely.

only time i saw cecil taylor was in london at the jazz cafe in about 1991. can't for the life of me remember who he played with, though i guess oxley is a fairly likely candidate

a giant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqNf6OCHn9E

Lots of Cecil coming down on the WFMU Give the Drummer Radio stream right now.

Never got to see him play. But man, what a genius.