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Cecil Taylor: Flashing Spirits

by Jack Kenny
Jazz never did know how to deal with Cecil Taylor. Does it now? Here is a session from Burning Ambulance from the Outside In Festival in Crawley Sussex recorded on 3rd September 1988. Cecil Taylor was fresh from his sojourn in Berlin where he created an important series of recordings and started working with Tony Oxley, a relationship that proved to be pivotal for both men. The album is issued in conjunction with Leo Feigin who ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor: Flashing Spirits

by James Taylor
There is a gift that keeps on giving nature to jazz music. Whether unearthing previously unknown archival recordings or niche labels getting long overdue vinyl re-pressings, fans of the genre have no shortage of new-to-us releases hitting the market every year. Such is the case with Flashing Spirits, the latest release documenting the prolific partnership of pianist Cecil Taylor and drummer Tony Oxley. Captured live at the 1988 Outside in Festival in Crawley, England, the performance consists of ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor: Live at Fat Tuesday's February 10, 1980

by Giuseppe Segala
Nella collana First Visit di ezz-thetics, dedicata a registrazioni storiche rimaste inedite fino a ora, l'etichetta svizzera Hat Hut Records pubblica il terzo CD di Live at Fat Tuesday's, completando così la documentazione degli straordinari concerti che videro impegnato il sestetto Unit di Cecil Taylor a New York dall'8 al 10 febbraio 1980. Come nelle precedenti pubblicazioni, It Is in the Brewing Luminous, uscita nel 1981, e Live At Fat Tuesday's February 9, 1980 First Visit, diffusa nel ...
Continue ReadingIn the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor

by Ian Patterson
In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil TaylorPhilip Freeman 344 Pages ISBN: # ISBN 978-3-9553-261-9 Wolke Verlag 2024 The thing that makes jazz so interesting is that each man is his own academy," Cecil Taylor once said, (quoted by Val Wilmer in Jazz People, Da Capo, 1970). The pianist/composer was certainly a school of one, a pianist and composer who occupied a unique position in contemporary music for almost seventy ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor: Live At Fat Tuesday's February 9, 1980 First Visit

by Giuseppe Segala
Nel periodo di passaggio tra gli anni Settanta e Ottanta, Cecil Taylor è stato oggetto di numerose attenzioni da parte di etichette europee, che ne hanno lodevolmente documentato esibizioni dal vivo assai significative. Tra queste, alcune presentano la formazione Unit in differenti organici strumentali, che esprimono con dovizia un momento di impeto formidabile e di incredibile intesa creativa. Ne sono esempio le registrazioni in Germania del giugno 1978 Live in the Black Forest e One Too Many Salty Swift and ...
Continue ReadingIn the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor

by Jack Kenny
In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil TaylorPhilip Freeman 344 Pages ISBN: # ISBN 978-3-9553-261-9 Wolke Verlag 2024 The sign over the nightclub says it all: Cecil Taylor starts where Thelonious Monk leaves off. Jazz has never really come to terms with Cecil Taylor. Comparisons with Bartok, Messiaen, Stravinsky, Berg are misleading. Does Taylor have a direct line to earlier pianists in the jazz tradition? To earlier composers? Is he ...
Continue ReadingCecil Taylor: Live At Fat Tuesday's February 9, 1980 First Visit

by John Eyles
For some years, Werner X. Uehlinger's Ezz-thetics label has been bringing smiles to the faces of countless lovers of free jazz by re-releasing albums featuring such luminaries as Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor (to name but a few of many) all with state-of-the-art sound quality. The label's distinctive orange lettering over black and white period images of the featured artists has made its albums instantly recognisable. Until now. The current album has blue ...
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