Cecil Taylor and Me…
Mother was a force to be reckoned with. When I was five years old, I asked for piano lessons, and she said to me... "You will be one of three things. You will be a dentist, a lawyer, or a doctor." And then she pointed at the piano and said, "You will practice for six days a week and I will supervise. You will get the basics, and on Sundays, you may do what you want." And so, isn't it interesting? I started to invent musical sounds on Sunday when I was five or six years old.
Cecil Taylor
Well, mother took me to see the great Ella Fitzgerald. I can remember sitting in the Paramount Theatre in 1944 and I was stunned by her improvisation on "Lady Be Good." And then getting to know Babs Gonzales, who really revolutionized the concept of words at the time. The relationship between Babs and the best rap people, it's very interesting that people don't think about that. But when you listen to Babs and you hear the lilt, his presence in terms of where he placed his words in terms of the rhythm section, it was really amazing.
Cecil Taylor
Unit Structures (1966) signed by Cecil
It's all part of the muse, the dance. To use the muscles of the body doing exercises, the body becomes a construction. In order to dance, one must be cognizant of the relationship between the fingers and the arms, in space, in duration... This idea of rhythm, rhythm exists in everyone, in the way we walk... Sometimes when it goes really well, you wonder, "Who's at the piano?" Sometimes you get lost, but you always try to reach that level of transcendence.
Cecil Taylor
You have to open yourself up when you play with him. He makes you play you, as forceful and individual as he himself is. We played a club a few years ago, and after about eight bars of Cecil's piano, the owner came running up and told him to get out of the club. He wouldn't even let us finish one song.
bassist Buell Neidlinger, liner notes Looking Ahead! (1958)
Looking Ahead! (1959)) signed by Cecil
Arranger, composer, free jazz avatar, pianist, poet, MacArthur Fellow, and all around l'enfant terrible, Cecil Taylor lived a remarkable life. Born in Queens, New York, Cecil was classically trained at the NewYork College of Music and the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied European composers Bela Bartok, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Igor Stravinsky. Upon graduation, Cecil moved back to New York City, "When I came out of the conservatory, the first thing I did was to go see Thelonious Monk. If you ever saw him dance on stage with his elbows extended, you saw the joy. It was like he was playing piano for the first time, and when he hit the keyboard with his elbows -- ha ha! No one played piano like Thelonious." Cecil began playing, honing his craft with other jazz artists, "You know, I played in Johnny Hodges' band for about a week in 1955 in Chester, Pennsylvania. That experience was so wonderful, such a pleasure I didn't even touch the piano for the first four days, until the wonderful (Ellington band trombonist) Lawrence Brown said, "er, Cecil, the piano has eighty-eight keys. It'd be nice if you'd play one note occasionally."
Of his early days in New York City, Ceci recalled, "My working experience began at a place called Club Harlem, and the piano had seven keys that didn't work. You started at 9, took fifteen minutes off each hour, worked until 4am and got $7. I also played at the Apollo Bar with a very tall alto player. We used to groove on "Dark Eyes." I would gig on Friday and Saturday and I recall walking in there one night, and the bartender saying, "Oh shit, it's going to be a weird weekend." To be sure, Cecil's singular and challenging way of playing was already being noticed, and, unfortunately, often castigated.
Soon, Cecil was leading his own band at the fabled Five Spot in 1956 and in the studio working on his first release Jazz Advance. Trombonist Roswell Rudd remembered the Five Spot scene well, "Once Cecil had pioneered the opening of that place, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane played there, Sonny Rollins, Mingus, you know, it goes on and on. But to walk into this place and hear this band of.Cecil's, it was just amazing. It was a great mixed reaction. People were being struck dumbfounded by what they heard, and some people just jumping up and running out. You know, it was great!"
Dark To Themselves (1976) signed by Cecil
This would be the enduring arc of Cecil Taylor's career, some people loved his music, others hated it, all found it challenging. The percussive and, at times, atonal dissonance enraptured some, enraged others, but Cecil remained nonplussed throughout. As he later observed, "When I listen to Jazz Advance, I understand why it was anathema to many musicians and to the academy that was in vogue at the time. And I also understand why I like it. You know, one doesn't decide to become a musician. The forces of nature decide that for you. You don't have any choice in the matter, and once you make a commitment to music, everything else that you do affects your playing." So Cecil followed his muse and released groundbreaking vinyl for the next nearly sixty years and the accolades and sometime derision followed as well.
His complex rhythms and sprawling songs (upwards of an hour in length) made it difficult for Cecil to have commercial success. Nightclubs were loath to book an artist considered avant-garde and radio play was an unlikely source of exposure. In a 1990 interview with DownBeat magazine, Cecil confided, "I was washing dishes in a restaurant at the same time I was being written about in places like DownBeat. And it was very good for me, because I had to decide what I really wanted to do. Did I want to pursue my ideals badly enough? It was the only way to learn that I did." Such uncommon resolve and commitment made him the revered artist that he became, and the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship and Kyoto Prize were just rewards for his artistic endeavors in his later years.
I saw Cecil only once, maybe twenty-five years ago at the Village Vanguard in New York City. It was an event, as he performed infrequently, mostly concert hall recitals, so an intimate performance at a hallowed jazz club was a treat. He had a trio with him and he began to play, actually attacking the piano with the ferocity of a drummer. He was loud and percussive, and as aggressive as anyone I have ever seen. The first song was a suite really, and lasted over forty-five minutes. At times, he was loud and cacophonous, other times tender and gently melodic, but he was always a kinetic force, alternately pounding or caressing the keys to achieve the sounds that he wanted. When he finished, Cecil toweled himself off like a prizefighter and dug into the second round, er, song which lasted about thirty minutes. His stamina was incredible. That poor concert Steinway never had a chance, it was pummeled into submission! As the great Max Roach once said, "Cecil is one of the most challenging musicians I've ever worked with. To put it in lay terms, it's like being in the ring with Joe Louis, Jack Johnson or Mike Tyson. It's like being on a battlefield, but it's warm music."
Historic Concerts (1979) signed by Cecil, Max Roach
After the show, I caught up with Cecil near the kitchen, an esteemed waiting area at the Village Vanguard. I was struck by how slight he was, maybe 5' 6", 140 pounds if I'm being generous, which belied the thunder and the wondrous, enveloping sounds that he had created on stage. Cecil was surrounded by well wishers but he was happy to sign the vinyl. "I can see you have Max (Roach) on here already. We had a lot of fun playing together." He really liked Looking Ahead!, one of his early releases, "Wow, this helped get everything started." I thanked Cecil for his time and especially his music.
Cecil Taylor was an uncompromising and unyielding artist. By the sheer dint of his virtuosity, he influenced so many. Frank Zappa, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and even Jerry Garcia were counted as among his fans and admirers. While no one plays piano like Thelonious Monk, as Cecil once said, no one plays piano like Cecil Taylor either, and we are all the richer for his artistry and integrity.
Choice Cecil Taylor Cuts (per BKs request)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EstPgi4eMe4
Free Improvisation #3 (1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD7JTpXZ1To
The World Of Cecil Taylor (1960)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Tdye6xuGI&t=580s
Unit Structures (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwdsVV9XjKI
Cecil Taylor Unit Live In Paris (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yJWcxzZBVE
Conquistador (1966)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS7PY8_1vhw
Historic Concerts (1979) Cecil Taylor and Max Roach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMfWrTawRSE
Cecil Taylor and Max Roach live 2000