Port of Call
This morning I was listening to a classic jazz album recorded in 1960 (in New York City) and called The World of Cecil Taylor. I’ve had for a very long time, but haven’t listened to it for ages. I don’t know why that is, because it’s brilliant. I haven’t posted much about Cecil Taylor on here so I thought I’d do a quick post about it with a sample in the form of my favourite track, Port of Call.
The 1960s saw a number of crucial innovations in the development of jazz, e.g. removing the bar stucture, making improvisations no longer dependent upon recurrent chordal patterns, and getting rid of fixed tempos. Looking back of the evolutionary history of this music, it’s clear that this album should be placed right at the spot where the old coalesced with the new. Throughout, Cecil Taylor’s solos are built by mixing paraphrases of thematic elements with very free improvisation but on Port of Call you can see more obviously signs of the transition between past and future. On the whole, this track conforms more closely to past keyboard transitions than the others: Taylor’s solo divides cleanly into 8-bar segments, with his left hand accentuating the harmonic shifts while his right supplies the melody. But there are also dazzling parallel runs which still sound strikingly modern and which few pianists could pull off so effortlessly at such a fast tempo. His total command of the instrument allows his imagination to find expression through it. Idea after idea comes flooding out as his solo progresses, quicksilver clusters of notes falling like heavy rain on crystal. Awesome.
P.S. The other members of the trio are Buell Neidlinger on bass and Dennis Charles on drums.
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In the Dark 
June 11, 2012 at 11:25 pm
I decided generally not to comment on the modern jazz here, because although I respect the instrumental virtuosity the music is not to my taste and there is no point in being curmudgeonly for its own sake (rather than to make a point). But I do wonder if anybody who cannot read music enjoys this stuff. That is what I meant here a long time ago by asking whether this was heart music as well as head music.
June 12, 2012 at 9:06 am
I’ll have to leave it to others to answer your question! However, I don’t think being able to read music has anything to do with it. This music isn’t really written down anyway. Personally I find the point(about 1.35)where he launches into those cascades of notes absolutely thrilling, in a distinctly non-cerebral way.
March 12, 2013 at 8:15 am
Feels like centuries I’ve been trying to learn to read music, bu the ant parade still escapes me, and I play by ear, still, or read like a dyslexic 9 year old (one note at the time, please…).
I love Cecil Taylor, and on this record particularly, don’t even get why people find him difficult, Just sounds like a funky piano player in the Ellington/Monk vein, w/ some blues influence…what am I not hearing that other people have a hard time w/?
March 12, 2013 at 3:14 pm
It’s hard to compare Cecil Taylor with anyone else, but I can understand what you mean about the Ellington influence, especially in the right hand.