Cecil Taylor RIP...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"One of the greatest, most unswervingly original, most incorrigibly sublime figures in the recent history of music died today, a few days after his eighty-ninth birthday. I got to see him several times in performance; the first time, in 1989, at the Western Front in Cambridge MA, was one of my indelible listening experiences. I made a poor attempt to write about him in 1998; I will let others sum up his magnificent career." - Alex Ross Blog, (New Yorker, The Rest is Noise etc).

I'd seen this reported elsewhere earlier but this does
seems authoritative.

RIP Cecil Taylor.

For me the earlier classics, "Looking Ahead" and "The World of Cecil Taylor".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Terribly sad news, and a great loss.

http://www.freejazzblog.org/2018/04/cecil-taylor-1929-2018.html

[Jazzrook]

"One of the greatest, most unswervingly original, most incorrigibly sublime figures in the recent history of music died today, a few days after his eighty-ninth birthday. I got to see him several times in performance; the first time, in 1989, at the Western Front in Cambridge MA, was one of my indelible listening experiences. I made a poor attempt to write about him in 1998; I will let others sum up his magnificent career." - Alex Ross Blog, (New Yorker, The Rest is Noise etc).

I'd seen this reported elsewhere earlier but this does
seems authoritative.

RIP Cecil Taylor.

For me the earlier classics, "Looking Ahead" and "The World of Cecil Taylor".

Very sad news.

His 'Silent Tongues' recorded at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival is one of the great solo piano jazz albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-NQdwzOYc

Lightnin' and thunder
Along the keyboard
Zips and unzips
Elemental forces
Through cracks cascading
An endless flux
Of magic pulses
Dance above the trembling earth.

RIP Cecil Taylor

JR

[Richard Barrett]

I always took every opportunity to hear Cecil, either solo or in various groupings, and most often in his duo with Tony Oxley. He was certainly one of the most inspiring creative musicians I've ever seen, having reconceived the piano and its capabilities in a way that has meant that every improvising pianist of the last fifty years has had to come to terms with his work one way or another. The last time I saw him play he was already well into his seventies but undimmed in energy and imagination.

[Serial_Apologist]

My first encounter with his music was from picking up "Live at the Cafe Montmartre" for 7 SF in the remainder boxes outside Jelmoli, Zurich's top department store, in '68. It took a while to "understand", not immediately appreciating that this required different responses from the mostly straight ahead stuff I'd familiarised myself with. Only years later did I find out that this was one of the most historic recordings in jazz history. One of many ear/mind opening up experiences of that time - for which, thank you, Cecil Taylor.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Lovely Obit on Richard Williams' Blue Moment blog just now, with RW meeting him on his first UK visit in 1969, driving him back to his hotel, and finding a Stevie Wonder album on his turntable.

He's interesting in that reading memories today on other blogs and websites, he was seen as perhaps the most difficult of the early "free" to get to initially get to grips with. Ornette, Cherry, Coltrane, Dolphy, Ra, Ayler even, seemed more accessible. Whether that's the piano as an instrument in that context or his style I don't know. I must visit/revisit the later albums.

[eighthobstruction]

know him?....I sang him....love love lovely bloke....a jazz advancer....peace

[Serial_Apologist]

know him?....I sang him....love love lovely bloke....a jazz advancer....peace

Keith Tippett - following a solo Cecil Taylor gig at St Georges Brandon Hill, Bristol: "Where's Cecil? I must find him and return that fiver he lent me the last time he was over".

[Ian Thumwood]

I always took every opportunity to hear Cecil, either solo or in various groupings, and most often in his duo with Tony Oxley. He was certainly one of the most inspiring creative musicians I've ever seen, having reconceived the piano and its capabilities in a way that has meant that every improvising pianist of the last fifty years has had to come to terms with his work one way or another. The last time I saw him play he was already well into his seventies but undimmed in energy and imagination.

I think this neatly sums up Cecil Taylor's approach but I also would agree with Bluesnik insofar that approaching his music is daunting. The link to the published article made a similar comment in comparing him this his avant garde contemporaries including John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler. With the passing of 50-odd years, the perception of this music has changed. Coltrane is very much the bedrock of jazz and you can clearly hear that Coleman was probably harking back to earlier traditions which have seen him almost achieve a popular following. I still remain sceptical just how "outside" Sun Ra was yet there is no doubting the fact that Cecil Taylor continues to sound adventurous.

For me, Taylor always sounds like a musician whose music I admire rather than love. I have "Conquistador" and this is a staggeringly good record. However, I always feel that Taylor never met the jazz audience half-way and even though he is yet another musician to have come out of Duke Ellington, there is a seriousness about his music makes his music inaccessible for many jazz fans. Sometimes I think that Taylor represents a culmination in jazz and that it is really difficult to take his approach to the piano any further.

I don't really agree that every improvising pianist in the last 50 years has had to come to terms with his style of playing. A great proportion of pianists have either ignored the challenge or found this approach unappealing. A far greater proportion of pianists have chosen to take the lead from Bill Evans who has had a markedly greater influence upon successive pianists although I am sometimes inclined to think that too many pianists have accepted this approach uncritically. It has certainly manifested itself within the mind set of many critics who consider piano trios like The Bad Plus or EST as being "progressive" or cutting edge. It is a bit of a joke really if you listen in comparison with Cecil Tylor - probably jazz's greatest, radical improviser. ( I fail to see how anyone can dispute this when his records from the 1960s still sound shocking in a way that Albert Ayler or John Coltrane doesn't these days. Ayler , as far as I am aware, was not really an atonal improviser. ) There are perfectly good pianists like the fabulous Kenny Barron who have gone on record as admiring his playing but not liking his music. The piano has become one of the least interesting instruments in jazz partly because of the conservatism of the music. Conversely, there are other pianists like Myra Melford who have embraced Taylor's style and used it as a vehicle that they have made personal. There are some elements of Cecil Taylor's playing that can crop up in all types of settings even within a broad definition of the mainstream. The issue for me is actually far wider. Cecil Taylor was clearly the first jazz pianist to use an atonal approach to lengthy improvisation and neither of these devices are likely to attract a broad appeal even with a "savvy" jazz audience.

The approach of Taylor on the Blue Note records is interesting in comparison with Herbie Hancock's who was also happy to explore less strict forms but chose to do so with a harmonic language that borrowed a lot from Debussy. Both approaches are valid , exhibit very high levels of technique and epitomise what can be done with jazz piano.

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't really agree that every improvising pianist in the last 50 years has had to come to terms with his style of playing. A great proportion of pianists have either ignored the challenge or found this approach unappealing.

The two main influences CT acknowledged were Dave Brubeck (perhaps surprisingly) and Horace Silver. He may at some point or when interviewed have included Bud Powell - who seems pretty audible - and Monk, whose "Bemsha Swing" was the first (?) track on CT's inaugural album recording. I think he would have had to acknowledge the influences of Bartok and Henry Cowell, from the modern classical field - a case of a great jazz musician taking aspects of classical modernism on board on jazz's terms. Outside music I think I would dare to add the influence of Abstract Expressionist painting

Among the pianists who I find to have been influenced by Cecil Taylor, (among other influences), I would include the following:

Paul Bley (albeit briefly) (US)
Sam Rivers (on the few occasions he's documented on record) (US)
Keith Jarrett (ditto) (US)
Richard Muhal Abrams (US)
Anthony Davis (US)
Chick Corea (in the "Circle" period) (US)
Marilyn Crispell (US)
Myra Melford (as Ian mentions) (US)
Howard Riley (UK)
John Taylor (to a small extent, but he acknowledged the influence) (UK)
Chris MacGregor (SA)
Keith Tippett (though he would say "inspired" rather than influenced) (UK)
Veryan Weston (UK)
Steve Beresford (UK)
Chris Burn (UK)
Mark Langford (UK)
Misha Mengelberg (Netherlands)
Fred van Hove (Netherlands)
Irène Schweizer (Switzerland)
Alexander Schlippenbach (Germany)
Aki Takase (Japan)
Billy Jenkins (UK)
John Law (initially) (UK)
Pat Thomas (UK)
Alexander Hawkins (UK).

Those are all the names that immediately roll off the keyboard - I could probably remember a few more - but it does indicate a not inconsiderable impact on pianists who have adopted Cecil's aesthetic, while not necessarily being all-out copyists - so in that respect they might be said to comprise an international lineage in parallel with Bill Evans's.

[Ian Thumwood]

The two main influences CT acknowledged were Dave Brubeck (perhaps surprisingly) and Horace Silver. He may at some point or when interviewed have included Bud Powell - who seems pretty audible - and Monk, whose "Bemsha Swing" was the first (?) track on CT's inaugural album recording. I think he would have had to acknowledge the influences of Bartok and Henry Cowell, from the modern classical field - a case of a great jazz musician taking aspects of classical modernism on board on jazz's terms. Outside music I think I would dare to add the influence of Abstract Expressionist painting

Among the pianists who I find to have been influenced by Cecil Taylor, (among other influences), I would include the following:

Paul Bley (albeit briefly) (US)
Sam Rivers (on the few occasions he's documented on record) (US)
Keith Jarrett (ditto) (US)
Richard Muhal Abrams (US)
Anthony Davis (US)
Chick Corea (in the "Circle" period) (US)
Marilyn Crispell (US)
Myra Melford (as Ian mentions) (US)
Howard Riley (UK)
John Taylor (to a small extent, but he acknowledged the influence) (UK)
Chris MacGregor (SA)
Keith Tippett (though he would say "inspired" rather than influenced) (UK)
Veryan Weston (UK)
Steve Beresford (UK)
Chris Burn (UK)
Mark Langford (UK)
Misha Mengelberg (Netherlands)
Fred van Hove (Netherlands)
Irène Schweizer (Switzerland)
Alexander Schlippenbach (Germany)
Aki Takase (Japan)
Billy Jenkins (UK)
John Law (initially) (UK)
Pat Thomas (UK)
Alexander Hawkins (UK).

Those are all the names that immediately roll off the keyboard - I could probably remember a few more - but it does indicate a not inconsiderable impact on pianists who have adopted Cecil's aesthetic, while not necessarily being all-out copyists - so in that respect they might be said to comprise an international lineage in parallel with Bill Evans's.

SA

That is a curious list because I feel that musicians like Paul Bley have always had an element of chromatacism in his playing where as Taylor seemed to plunge straight in to atonality. Your list clearly demonstrates that Taylor held far greater sway in Europe than in the States. But I would also add that some of his techniques have now manifested themselves in the mainstream with pianists like Chucho Valdes equally capable of producing work that can be very similar albeit in a Latin Jazz context. This influence only seems to be in small doses and the full-on approach that Taylor adopted seems very much like a culmination in what can be done on a piano.

This article is quite good:-

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/cecil-taylor-1929-2018-cecil-taylor-by-karl-ackermann.php?pg=1

[Serial_Apologist]

SA

That is a curious list because I feel that musicians like Paul Bley have always had an element of chromatacism in his playing where as Taylor seemed to plunge straight in to atonality. Your list clearly demonstrates that Taylor held far greater sway in Europe than in the States. But I would also add that some of his techniques have now manifested themselves in the mainstream with pianists like Chucho Valdes equally capable of producing work that can be very similar albeit in a Latin Jazz context. This influence only seems to be in small doses and the full-on approach that Taylor adopted seems very much like a culmination in what can be done on a piano.

This article is quite good:-

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/cecil-t...rmann.php?pg=1

Thanks for posting that article, Ian. My thoughts re Paul Bley are that he kind of picked up on Cecil's more atonal approach after having worked with Ornette - remember that extraordinary trio with Jimmy Giuffre and the 20-year old Steve Swallow he had in 1960/61 - more contemporary classical-influenced, using 12-tone rows etc - as was Dolphy - than Ornette. In both cases an important stage of mentoring came about as a result of Gunther Schuller's intervention at that stage, though afaik Cecil Taylor was never involved in any of that. Evan Parker recalls seeing the Taylor trio in a NY downtown bar, where he enjoyed a poorly attended residency for a time, and being astonished at his lack of recognition of any kind, let alone fame, which Ornette had acquired moving New Yorkwards, or at least notoriety. Of course Ornette had some sanction from older figureheads, notably John Lewis, whereas Cecil had to go it alone. Being a gay man possibly pre-primed him for such exclusion.

I just knew I would omit somebody really important from that list, btw, and of course it had to be Don Pullen!

[Richard Barrett]

Your list clearly demonstrates that Taylor held far greater sway in Europe than in the States.

Actually I think S_A's list demonstrates that he knows more European (and especially British) than American pianists who've been influenced by CT, among whom one could name Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn - I'm sure there must be many more.

CT's relationship to contemporary composition is an interesting area. He cites Bartók and Stravinsky as composers whose work had a strong effect on him (and had some harsh words for composers like Stockhausen and Cage who in the early 1960s branched out into more improvisational and/or aleatoric areas) but these influences are hard to hear in his music I think. On the other hand, his improvisations are always underpinned by the kind of structural discipline one might generally associate more with through-composed work, and of course he had various signature harmonic and motivic ideas which recur many times in his output in different structural contexts, as if his solo piano music was a single massive "composition" poised between the evolution of new forms and the variation of existing ones. People often talk and write about his "atonality" but just as important in his breaking out of jazz frameworks was the way in which he structured his solos (and solo pieces) which for me is one of the most compelling things about his work.

[Jazzrook]

Cecil Taylor's obituary by John Fordham in The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/06/cecil-taylor-free-jazz-pioneer-dies-age-89-new-york-pianist-avant-garde

JR

[Richard Barrett]

I’ve been reacquainting myself with some random highlights of CT’s output over the last few days:
Looking Ahead (1958) which underlines the fact that his “early” style is itself fully realised, not just a stepping stone to something else
Regalia (1988), a duo with Paul Lovens from the massive Berlin 1988 box set on FMP (a monument of free improvisation, if there can be such a thing) and the first time these two had played together. Paul said to me once when I was handing out charts: “I can’t read music but I can read your mind”, and that about sums up his approach here, locking into CT’s complex rhythms and weaving tendrils round them. A fascinating comparison can be made with
Leaf Palm Hand (1988) from the same sessions but this time with Tony Oxley, CT’s most frequent percussive duo partner, timbrally not as imaginative a player as Lovens but completely up with the twists and turns and stabs of CT’s playing, often sounding as if there’s only one instrument playing, which in
Silent Tongues (1973) there is. My way into CT’s playing was through his solo music and this is an early example, like quite a lot of his work not particularly well recorded, but more concise than his later solo recordings, maybe somewhat lacking their extended structural thinking, but something that would probably be a good intro to this oeuvre for someone wondering what the fuss is about.