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A major contribution to the study of all aspects of this jazz master, from his groundbreaking compositions to his performance style and poetry.
Cecil Taylor (1929–2018) was one of the most influential pianists and composers in contemporary jazz. A pioneer as a leader/composer in the free jazz movement of the late '50s and early '60s, Taylor developed into a major voice in expanding jazz's harmonic and rhythmic languages. Through his career, he mentored and worked alongside other leading jazz stylists, including Steve Lacy, Buell Neidlinger, Jimmy Lyons, and Sunny Murray, as well as composed music for ballet and dance He also was a well-known poet whose work has been compared to Amiri Baraka's, among others. The World of Cecil Taylor contains essays from musicians who played with Cecil, jazz fans, academics, and critics, as well as in-depth essays on Taylor's poetry, photos, and interviews. Like one of Cecil's solos, the book is multivocal, with many nuances and changes in the rhythm. The World of Cecil will be a valuable resource for readers and scholars as an introduction and exploration of one of America's most original musical voices.
"What a marvelous book! Cecil Taylor was a great American artist—a one-of-a-kind pianist, composer, and poet who profoundly enriched those of us who were privileged to live in his time and to count him as a friend. Assembling a broad spectrum of interviews, memoirs, and analyses of Taylor's accomplishments by a bevy of musicians, writers, and poets whose lives were indelibly impacted by him, this anthology is worthy of its subject. It’s at once a terrific read and a textured, multi-angled mine of information about the life and work of a genuinely singular figure." — Robert Levin, author of Going Outside: Fiction, Commentary, Jazz
Peter Valente is a writer, translator, and filmmaker. He is the author of twenty-two full length books, including a translation of Nanni Balestrini's Blackout, which received a starred review in Publisher's Weekly. His most recent books are The Occult Harry Smith: The Magical and Alchemical Work of an Artist of the Extremes and his translation of Nicolas Pages by Guillaume Dustan. He lives in Castle Hayne, North Carolina.
Introduction
Peter Valente
1. The Avant-Gardist Who Came in from the Cold
Gary Giddins
2. On Cecil Taylor's Conservatory Education
Allan Chase
3. Impressions of Cecil Taylor
Marc Edwards
4. Visceral and Cathartic Joy: An Appreciation of Cecil Taylor
Taylor Ho Bynum
5. My Time with Cecil Taylor
Mark Hundevad
6. Remembering Cecil
John Bruschini
7. Scale as Material in the Music of Cecil Taylor
Damon Smith
8. Cecil Taylor: Storyteller/A Remembrance
Yuko Otomo
9. Excursions on a Wobbly Rail (in Three Parts)
Joel Lewis
10. Notes on Cecil Taylor and the Drummers: A Thought Experiment
Peter Valente
11. Cecil Taylor: My History and FMP Collaboration
Elliott Levin
12. Cecil Taylor in Berlin
Steve Lake
13. My Time with Cecil Taylor
Jackson Krall
14. Mountain High/Cecil Taylor Still Scales the Heights
Ed Hazell
15. Liner Notes to Garden (Hat Hut Records)
Art Lange
16. Thoughts on the Album Looking Ahead
Mathew Shipp
17. Notes for Algonquin (Bridge 9146)
Bill Shoemaker
18. "'The Scented Parabola': Occasions of Cecil Taylor's Poetry"
David Grubbs
19. Cecil Taylor and the Commitment to Poetry
David Grundy
20. Cecil Taylor: A Biblio-Discography
21. Cecil Taylor: Across Living Solar Plasma
Will Alexander
22. Poetry
Joel Lewis
Indent
Anne Waldman
after Garden
(Lisa B) Lisa Bernstein
Cecil Taylor: I Am an Orchestra
Candace Hill Montgomery
Blanklight
Unalive Sparrow Decides on Poetic Powers
Steve Timm
Epicritic (Pertaining to Cutaneous Sensitivity)
Proxumal (Nearest)
Alumo
Elliott Levin
Huan
Clark Coolidge
From Comes Through in the Call Hold (Improvisations on Cecil Taylor)
23. "Mountains" Cecil Taylor (1985) & "Mettle has been tested" Cecil Taylor (1986)
Mark Miller
24. The Influence and Significance of Cecil Taylor's Alphabet Notation: From the Mills Archives
Jeff Schwartz
25. The Foundation of Taylor's Music
Matthew Goodheart
26. Notes on the Implications of Cecil Taylor's Solo Performance of "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To"
Matthew Landis
27. Repertoire and the Role of Written Material in the Music of the 1978 Cecil Taylor Unit
Alex Ward
28. Reviews: Recordings
Gunther Schuller
29. Cecil Taylor's Structures and Personal Technique
Kaja Draksler
30. Interview with Cecil Taylor
Robert L. Doerschuk
31. Interviews
Ted Panken
Andrew Cyrille on Cecil Taylor
Tony Oxley on Cecil Taylor
Dan Marmorstein on Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor on Andrew Cyrille
List of Contributors
Index