Cecil Taylor

[savage1537]

This man is way out there

[edjhennessy]

At first I thought, couldn't Taylor dress up a little? Wearing a sweat suit isn't the classiest thing to do on a professional video recording. Then I noticed the sweat stains around his neck and underarms. Playing the way he does, under hot studio lights, must be quite the draining exercise. I guess gym clothes was a smart idea after all.

[levarnaud]

@edjhennessy he should start by removing the hat if heat is an issue ;)

[0154THEBEAST]

it's free jazz and it's awesome !

[0154THEBEAST]

it's free jazz !

[992105]

knows

[4ourty5ive]

@snubbs741 TRUE that...

[misermania]

I don't get it

[concernedanonymous]

I can see why less knowledgeable people think that musicians like Peter Brotzmann or Derek Bailey just make random noises, but even they should be able to recognise the deliberacy and logic in Cecil Taylor's playing. Some people just refuse to break out of the cage of prejudice encasing society. Of course, at the other end of the spectrum are the people who will listen to anything 'avant-garde' regardless of whether it actually has any quality.

[briteness]

Was this improvised? Whether it was or not, it is pretty remarkable.

[2300skiddo]

To the listener wanting to get a handle on free jazz, just listen to this performance repeatedly. It contains dissonance, but it's almost entirely tonal. He moves around freely, but so does everything from Stravinsky on, as far as harmony goes. This is MUCH tamer and more approachable than earlier Cecil. Another good starting point is the place free jazz started, with Ornette's early Atlantics like "The Shape of Jazz to Come." Bebop without specific chord progressions.

Thanks for posting this!

[keithnedko]

@2300skiddo i agree, lots of material in there is tonal and melodic- there are some often repeated blues licks in there. like stravinsky and bartok he's just adding a lot of harmonic colour, sometimes quite dissonant. check out anthony pateras from australia....

[projectsinexile]

@keithnedko : it is called 'intertextuality', when he quotes...

[piercdbruh]

I need some help here, I'm taking a Jazz course and I really dug everything from Dixie Jazz Band One Step all the way through Coltrane. But I can't seem to wrap my head around free jazz at all. It seems random and out of sorts.  I'm simply taking this class for enjoyment and a Humanities credit, but I am disturbed by not "getting" what so many people say is great music. Can anybody offer a little help on how to approach listening to it?

[ELPsteel]

@piercdbruh

What unites Cecil Taylor with Coltrane and Louis and Bird and Ornette or any other improviser, is that they are telling a story. They are INTENDING to do something - it is not random. The difference is they are telling a story with the general sound of their instrument instead of specific notes. When you listen to ANY musician, always be thinking - "what is this person INTENDING to do" because there ALWAYS will be something there to hear.

Happy listening!

[piercdbruh]

@ELPsteel

Thank You!!!

[gmansoul]

@piercdbruh yea brother I can offer some help. Dont sit around and listen to free jazz trying to get all the shades and listen to every phrase. Run around the house and do things while the jazz is playing, you will find as your brain is disconnected doing different things, the Jazz takes on a whole new meaning.

[foxybrown2]

@piercdbruh Do not worry this kind of music is not for every one. to me its sounds like bunch of random notes

I have tried and tried to like this but sorry i can't get into it because i am a melodic person. When there is no sense of direction for the music it does not move me. I can see going outside for a moment but to star a song in the middle of nothing is strange. But to each his own.

[briteness]

Wow wow wow wow wow wow... I think I've just been Taylorized.

[ThingyBlahBlah3]

Some guys can do this, and some guys can't. Cecil Taylor can.

[laalalala1]

@ThingyBlahBlah3 I haven't heard anyone other than Cecil Taylor do this

[breakingthe4thwall]

You know there is some melody mixed in there.

[Toracube]

That's how I would play if I had the guts !!

[u89worlds]

rhapsody for the human neurology system growling singing and tender with some kung fu too

[freddypira]

Fantastic

[floorembden]

see on youtube :

Messiaen Ile de feu Cathal Breslin Live in Concert

or

"Sae Lee Plays "Le Loriot" Catalogue d'oiseaux by O.Messiaen"

[jasonsexypants]

This dude is a moron. I am a music major so I think I know a little about music. There is no key, no harmonic progression at all, the dude is literally just banging on the piano.

[muffinsdotexe]

@jasonsexypants you heard it here first folks. jasonsexypants knows more about music than cecil taylor

[millencolinman]

@muffinsdotexe Right, what an idiot. He IS a music major though. I guess he hasn't gotten past the Boroque in his classes yet.

[loren1283]

@jasonsexypants Good luck in your studies, but if it starts getting rough on you, dont be afraid to try political science or finance, or whatever.

[rloomis3]

@jasonsexypants You're a music major and you have no familiarity with music that's not written in a particular key? That's frightening. So where is this school where they stop teaching music after the late nineteenth century?

[KeithWhalen11]

@jasonsexypants As a music major how could you possibly overlook the rhythmic ingenuity here? You would think time studying in music would reduce your desire to denigrate creative music like this but I guess not. Music without key has been around for a long time, we could easily mention anything from Liszt's 'Bagatelle sans Tonalité' to Ligeti's 'Symphonic Poem for 100 Metronomes'. Music is far more expansive than the consensus would have us believe.

[soultrane9074]

@jasonsexypants Man, just because your naivety causes some kind of tenderness, does not allow you to scatter streams of titanically sized pieces of bullshit from your confused and dreadfully mediocre educated mind. If you wanna dig some jazz, though, start listening some records from the last 50 years. You might find this name in plenty of records, books and even some concerts!.

This last may, in fact, allow you to learn, instead of provoking a light-a-torch of fear of the not-yet acknowledged

[Yontar]

@jasonsexypants open your ears. that's all i have to say. i am a music major too and if you think this sounds like banging you need to listen to some of the avant-garde stuff from the early 20th century. hell you need to listen and understand 4'33" by cage before anything. if you think someone playing an instrument who can obviously play their ass off is noise then you are fucked. nuff said.

[mukmuklabuguen]

@jasonsexypants you're right, you know little, very little.  Being a music major means that music is your main course of study, not that you already are knowledgeble. How many years of schooling have you completed, what is you main instrument? How about getting a degree in music and then listen to this and comment.

[mukmuklabuguen]

I am not saying that a person needs a music degree to listen to and enjoy this piece, I just hate it when kids tell me they are music majors, and know everything; I've been a musician for over twenty years, and I can tell you, you will never know everything. You'll be lucky if you walk away with even a little knowledge of everything out there.

[ultraaddict909]

The King of 88.

[TheTheurgist]

I saw cecil in 1985-86 play. He was a big influence on my music then and continues to be. Thanks

[TedEdFred21]

thelonius monk on crack?

[htapoicos]

Cecil taylor's unit structures, 3 phasis, and Silent tongues are also very good recordings. Start with silent tongues.

[jamesp34]

c'est quoi ce foutage de gueule ?

[IStoleYourPotatoes]

Start at the beginning with Cecil Taylor's Jazz Advance album recorded by Blue Note in 1956. Then chase it with Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come recorded in 1959 by Atlantic. Both are seminal recordings.

[pizzaROX2]

what happened to the ful version taht was posted?

[drstirling]

whoah! anarchic yet disciplined? otherworldly? very interesting!

[maynrdjkeenan]

This is FANTASTIC. What a master of the piano.  Every note is totally calculated and perfectly executed.

[nicodagger]

did he ever play with his own group, or someone elses's or has he always been a solo artist? Is he in the musical school of say Ornette Coleman? Or Arnold Schoenberg?

[Euroflounder]

He had at least one group, the Cecil Taylor Unit, and he often played with others such as the art ensemble of Chicago. I believe he was pretty much a jazz artist, but the tone clusters and some other stuff were probably influenced by modern classical.

[echoplus2020]

God, I love the way he uses tone clusters, so dissonant but melodic at the same time. Makes me want to pick up keys, much harder to do them on a guitar (not impossible, just cumbersome)

[Euroflounder]

You could always re-tune the guitar.

[echoplus2020]

true true, I've tried that tuning the strings within a half step of each other it sounds amazing. I still find it hard to incorporate them into my actual playing though.

[checristian1991]

uhmmmmm he was usually solo. from what my proffesor says it would be kinda hard to play with him with this kinda stuff

[artistsassist]

I saw him a few years ago in Battery Park concert series. I almost fell out of my chair. He was such a powerful performer.

[SpecialtyCookware]

very interesting. completely new to taylor, but intrigued by his style.

[jmnsw2300]

great post, kinda new to Cecil but love Ayler and Coltrane and the rest. Despite all the fuss this is not too far from Jarrett et al.

[homestarfan2008]

How is this so different than Coltrane or Davis? They're both improvising, only Cecil Taylor is more unrestricted. Just because it doesn't neatly fit the ABA structure, it's still jazz and it's still improvisation. I think this is incredible and I can understand what he's saying with the music.

[garygomesg]

Obviously you don't like it. Fine. We can just leave it at that, I don't want to get into it with anyone.

[garygomesg]

I love Cecil and love his music. He had the nerve to keep on playing in the way that he heard and liked in spite of all the negatives. He really is a genius --and yes, I like Peterson, and other more conventional players. I play keyboards myself and this guy, with a very few exceptions. (Tyner is one notable exceptions and he only matches Cecil on a good day outplays EVERYONE.

[vihtorik]

yes yes a real genius. I think that he actually has a very low-witted, and has somehow managed to come fool you all with all this shite

[BostonRocker51]

well mixed... for stereo. Nice piano. The Bosendorfer grands are nice. I wish I could play that well...

[mahoose6]

People should stop talking, and just listen.

[DarekHB]

Did you know you can do both while watching a video in your home?

[boogieshoeses]

@mahoose6 stfu noob

[bobaiyun]

What's with the strange bar at the top of the video?

[disconnected22]

That's just an artifact of the old VHS tape. It's on all copies of this video, I think.

[musictflo]

Counterpoint? He used to write lead sheets for sidemen with figured bass. Anyway, counter point as pure voice leading isn't always the point.Listen to the parallelisms of Ellingtons' "Brown skinned gal in the Calico gown" and say 'oh it needs counterpoint'...Very nice performance-typical of Cecil-typically brilliant.

[WestAus08]

.defss

[written12]

Interesting point.  Perhaps when you get a chance, you could write a little more about what Taylor does- and does not do.

I first heard Taylor many years ago, but am now just getting back, and deeper, into his music.

By the way, as for counterpoint, it's not really a big of free jazz, is it?

[arbolista]

fool

[Mose99]

Snappy! Saucey!

[OlympicSong]

Hi ! Cool stuff. Good vid. Cheers !

[wanjabelaga]

some of his recordings are very important for us improvisers!

offcourse for many jarrett-cologne-concert-fans and richard claydermannfans he is a monster

;-))))

[Kemenesfalvi]

I'm new to free jazz, but I can hear logic in what he's doing. I mean it's easy to tell that what we hear is not random, it comes out as he planes, and If we say Bartók is art then this is not worse i think

[paolomarchettini]

trovo che ci sia molta coerenza nella scelta delle note...dietro l'apparente casualità, c'è molta consapevolezza. molto interessante!

[leeniebeanie91]

The poor Bosendorfer. Who would do that to a piano?!

[mick1316591]

A highly creative musical genius would! Besides, the piano isn't hurt at all by being used to play improvisational music.

[leeniebeanie91]

I hate to tell you this, but there have been stories about him breaking pianos and damaging them. Who bangs around on pianos. It's not creative what so ever. It's just noise. What he is doing is banging around on the piano. It's nothing special. Don't let this junk entice you.

[mick1316591]

I wonder if there's a video on Youtube of Cecil Taylor actually breaking a piano? I think that might be worth watching. He isn't just banging around on the piano, he's improvising, which is what modern jazz is all about.

[leeniebeanie91]

I'm glad that you like his music. I think everyone should be able to enjoy what they want to hear! :)

It's just not what I like listening to. It's also not improvising. It is and forever will be banging on the piano.

[pianodan10]

If he's making it up on the spot... Which he is... it is improvising.

Whether it's improvising that you like the sound of is another thing. Taste is taste, but don't say something isn't something that it is...

[leeniebeanie91]

You can call it improvising... but any idiot can walk up to a piano and "improvise" like he is. Too bad it doesn't take talent to be famous anymore.

[bobaiyun]

Cecil Taylor just hears music in a very unique way. I'm also sure that if you talked to him about he would be able to explain exactly why he made the choices he did.

[leeniebeanie91]

Very well said! I think that's a very good statement :) :)

[robinandcecil]

Hmmmm,not music? Let me see - in the past century I recall hearing that Stravinsky, Shostakovich, The Beatles (to name a small handful)didn't compose real music, just noise. It's a trap many 'musicians' of one persuasion or another fall into. Beware!

[KevvieG]

I am generally not a fan of free jazz, but this has a real sense of direction and I like how it combines consonance and dissonance, rather than an endless stream of percussive nonsense (like some free pianists I've heard)

[markcarolan]

No you're not.

[Tuppington]

ur not a true musician until you put the notion of "proper music" out of your head. music rules are made to be broken sometimes.

[lkman4]

fuck the rules!

[A10203040]

got any videos of you showing off your musicianship for us to see?

[ohmydayzy]

Id say you were more a cunt

[hamadah4]

Captivating from the beginning till the end......GREAT!!

[alduffy2009]

retorex:If you don't get it! You never will!

Cecil's Musik is planetary frequecies of our planet in conjunction with alpha-omega nebula's

[languagerecovery]

retrorex: what stupid comment.

[retrorex]

It's just farting around at the piano. Practically anyone can do this. Like most "free" jazz musicians, Taylor is sorely overrated. I just don't get it. Don Pullen I like, but this is just aimless farting around. Sorry!

[ThomasAthanasius]

retorex:

I'll grant you that his music isn't for the feeble-minded. However, if you listen closely, you'll hear the repetition of ideas at the same pitch, you'll hear rhythmic precision. In short, you'll see design. And, hopefully, you'll see the intelligence and skill behind it.

[jameztashnick]

ya, and I'm sure that when banging on piano keys with his elbows along side of the italian instable orchestra, he's very aware of what he's playing. maybe he'll release an album where he runs over a piano with a steamroller, and people will call it genius.

[hradek]

It's like staring at a big block Chevy engine; chromed and tuned. Some people will like it and some will disregard it. I appreciate your comment retrorex. It's too bad that the two polars can't converse about opinion.

And while we're all sharing opinions, I don't care for it. Thanks for sharing and allowing me a chance to hear/see it.

[TomBandfield]

This is fucking beautiful and insane, and a whole load of other adjectives that can't even begin to describe this wonderful music. Just listen... :-D

[SHAOLINSHADOWBOXER80]

I had this on vhs...lol..did they put this on dvd? Can you post the whole movie Sky50?

[54spiritedwill54]

awesomeness!

[iwanttowatchsomethin]

Very nice. Thank you.

[omba]

I had the luck seeing Cecil Taylor live (solo) some weeks ago. It was still as sparkling as decades ago. All the best to him and may his music be around us all the time. thanks a lot for the video.

[iwanttowatchsomethin]

Thanks. I saw him a few months ago. He is in such good shape as a performer. He even gave us a little poetry, and, a latin touch (however fleeting) in a few of his improvisations.

[gregfel]

Masterful! What a beautiful piece.

[BFFEFL]

I love it! Always LOVE Cecil Taylor. He is 78 and still ALIVE!

[mpolzkill]

BFFEFL: And still playing like he's possessed. At least he was 10 months ago when I saw him.

[yelanban]

impresionante!!!

[kunalmithrill]

wow

[jackdelawack]

as always a pleasure to see the master....

[zosantube]

Great!!! Good to see CT present here. More CT dances!