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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.