From the opening patterns of Denis Charles' drums on the title cut, the listener knows he/she is in for something special. One can only imagine what the reaction of the average jazz fan was in 1960 when this session was recorded. This is a wonderful document from early in Taylor's career, when he was midway between modernist approaches to standard material and his own radical experiments that would come to full fruition a few years hence. The quartet, rounded out by the youthful Archie Shepp (playing only on "Air" and "Lazy Afternoon") and bassist Buell Neidlinger, is already quite comfortable at pushing the boundaries of the period, giving an almost cursory reading of the themes before leaping into improvisation. The standard "This Nearly Was Mine" is explored gorgeously and with strong romanticism by Taylor, giving perhaps an indication of the source of the brief, blissful encores he would offer up to end his solo concerts in coming decades. "Port of Call" and "Eb" are both utter masterpieces showing Taylor already maintaining an unheard of mastery of the piano, musical ideas darting like sparks from his fingertips. What's extra amazing is how deeply entrenched the blues feel and pulse are in this music, already bound for the further reaches of abstraction. They never left Taylor, although many listeners have difficulty discerning them. This session, which has been released under numerous guises, is an especially fine introduction to his work, keeping enough of a foot in "traditional" jazz forms to offer one purchase while dangling breathtaking visions of the possible within one's reach. A classic recording that belongs in anyone's collection.
Genre - Jazz
Styles - Avant Garde Jazz, Free Jazz, Piano Jazz
Time - 48:56
Format - mp3@298 Kbps
Size - 89 mb
Tracks
01. Air
02. This Nearly Was Mine
03. Port of Call
04. E.B.
05. Lazy Afternoon
Credits
Cecil Taylor (piano)
Archie Shepp (tenor sax)
Buell Neidlinger (bass)
Denis Charles (drums)
Label
Candid, 1960
1 comentarios:
This review is from: The World of Cecil Taylor (Audio CD)
Cecil Taylor is clearly one of the greatest piano players of the century in any genre. Having said that, he is not by any means easy to listen to: plenty of people dismiss it as pounding, Branford Marsalys (disapointingly!) called it "self indulgent BS" on Ken Burns' Jazz doc. But if you are interested in hearing the music on its own terms, and have even a slight appreciation of Shoenberg as well as Monk, Powell, and Ornette Coleman, you will HAVE to admit it is Virtuosic at an almost inhuman level. Oh yea, "The World of"... Compared to some of the later stuff this is a walk in the park!! Really, Taylor is pretty "far out" on the keyboard, but Dennis and Beull stick with traditional jazz rythms behind, which makes this date (all the dates with this trio) invaluable. The music here is nothing less than astonishing!! You can still here echos of influences: Duke, Monk, certainly Powell. But then Taylor turns them all inside out and twists them into unimaginable patterns and quirky variations. He wild flights and disonant flurries are full of brilliant new concepts and would change jazz drastically and forever. This album is both far out and enjoyable. It is much more accesible than, say, his later trio and large band stuff. If you are at all interested in experienceing cecil (I dont see how you can be interested in Jaz piano and overlook him), I would recommend starting with Jazz Advance as an intro, then moving on to this, The World Of, as a second, and then trying ,Silent tongues, as a more daring initiation into his freest and more relenles and dissonant work. Get this and enjoy, it will open new worlds for you!