Cecil Taylor

We Say...

Review by Charles Farrell

Cecil Taylor is one of the most singular band leaders and composers in all of jazz; he's also arguably the genre’s most innovative pianist of the last 50 years. Recorded in 1978, Cecil Taylor Unit is an extraordinarily powerful program that presents one of the pianist’s larger working ensembles performing three extended compositions.

Taylor introduces thematic exposition through the bold declaration of melody, as in the opening “Idut,” here stated by trumpet player Raphe Malik, violinist Ramsey Ameen and alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons. He then folds in harmonic and rhythmic suggestions through massive blocks of piano sound. Pianistically, Duke Ellington is the only antecedent I can think of to this kind of accompanying approach. The result is a boiling swirl out of which emerges highly charged and decidedly speech-like solos. Underneath these solos, bassist Sirone and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson keep things churning.

But for all its sanguinity, Taylor’s music has sections of great lyricism. The pianist himself had expanded his playing voice at this point in his career to incorporate richly pensive segments of improvisation. And Lyons was an unsung genius of melodic strategizing — truly the Johnny Hodges to Taylor’s Ellington. One of the most remarkable things Taylor accomplishes is finding ways for one band to become, as needed, several bands. At times, the group is a traditional (if particularly aggressive) jazz quartet comprised of saxophone, piano, bass and drums. Sirone will then move to arco playing, Ameen will take over from Lyons, Taylor will shift from jazz mode to late 20th-century classical and the music will have changed entirely within a few seconds. Taylor’s sense of structure guarantees that the form will hold.

It’s difficult for me to single out high points of Cecil Taylor Unit. The music is too well-integrated for that. I’d suggest paying particular attention to Jimmy Lyons’s magnificent solo just after the ten minute mark on “Idut.” Taylor’s scintillating piano accompaniment through the early stages of “Serdad” is breathtaking, as is his solo about ten minutes in. The lengthy “Holiday En Masque” which closes the album illustrates how successful long-form composition/improvisation can be when placed under the control of someone with the kind of overview possessed by the remarkable Cecil Taylor.