Photo credit: Deborah Feingold/Corbis/Getty
Today would have been Cecil Taylor’s 95th birthday. I think about Cecil almost every single day, it’s nearly impossible to imagine modern jazz and improvisatory arts without him.
Picks
Cecil Taylor - The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert at The Town Hall NYC November 4, 1973 I can’t overstate how important this album is to appreciating and understanding the music of Cecil Taylor. I wrote about this when it came out at in 2022, and I stand by everything I said at the time. This is a must-own, and even for fans of physical media, it is best owned digitally as you can listen to the unedited recording in full.
Cecil Taylor Unit - Live At Fat Tuesdays, February 9, 1980 First Visit This just came out as the first release from a new Hat Hut imprint, also produced by Werner Uehlinger. This is another set from the Unit’s epic run that resulted in Hat Hut’s 1981 release, It Is In the Brewing Luminous. I’ll say, personally, I would have liked to hear the complete recordings, as the variation between sets is often one of most illuminating aspects of listening to Cecil’s recordings. That said, this has a really crisp sound, nice separation, and Jimmy Lyons sounds fantastic.
Misc
Next month, The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins will be released by New York Review Books. This is the first publication since the incredible Rollins biography was published, and it’ll surely be another must-read. I’m really looking forwards to this, and anything more we’ll get from Rollins’s archives.
Staying on Rollins for a moment, next month Blue Note is releasing a vinyl edition of A Night At the Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters. Blue Note is threading a needle here, saying this release “marks the first time Rollins’ complete recorded performances from the Vanguard are available in a single vinyl package,” which is too easily misread as saying this is the first time these recordings are available full stop. They are not, but that doesn’t lessen the import of the release, any change to hear these performances anew is a welcome one.