Word: saxophonist
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...Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, who visited and performed at Harvard last spring, remembers how difficult it was to gain critical and social acceptance for Taylor's musical innovations. "We had almost the whole world against us," said Lacy, "we had more rehearsals than gigs, and there were about two, or three, or four people that would follow us around from gig to gig. That was our public, really...There were musicians who would walk off the bandstand when Cecil would walk in a club...
...earliest recordings that will be broadcast during the orgy, those from the period 1955-1960, Cecil Taylor sounds approximately like a jazz pianist on acid. He performs with the standard format of a jazz combo: piano, bass, drums, and a hornman, in this case, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. The group records several versions of tunes from the standard jazz repertoire. Hearing Taylor perform the Duke Ellington-Billy Strayhorn composition "Johnny Come Lately" has almost the shock value that hearing Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star Spangled Banner" must have had ten years later. The familiar jazzman's repertoire turns...
Also in this period, namely in 1958, Taylor recorded an album with tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. It is difficult to find a more bizarre record anywhere. With Coltrane struggling mightily to cling to his own advanced harmonic world against Taylor's barrage of atonal clusters, jarring rhythmic patterns, and jackhammer assaults on the piano, a profound tug-of-war between two musical camps ensues. Nobody wins, and the tension produced is exhausting both for the musicians and listeners. Still, this has to be one of the most interesting recordings of American music ever made. It has the curiosity value that...
...level of telepathic musical interaction in Taylor's groups starting around 1963 with the addition of drummer Steve Murray and saxophonist Jimmy Lyons is startling. These musicians are thinking so fast! On a recording such as the 1966 album Conquistador (airing on WHRB around 11:00 p.m.), the group produces music as a seamless whole. It is for this reason that Taylor chose to name his groups "The Cecil Taylor Unit," which he takes to mean, "a community of men feeding each other, relating to each other, and speaking to each other in musical, architectural sounds which have been passed...
...Cool (GRP). The goal: to raise money for the fight against AIDS. The high concept: to match some of the most | exciting performers in hip-hop (the bands Digable Planets and Us3, bassist- rapper Me'Shell NdegeOcello and others) with some of the finest performers in jazz (including saxophonist Joshua Redman, trumpeter Donald Byrd and keyboardist Herbie Hancock) and create a benefit CD of jazz-rap songs. The result: a landmark album that brilliantly harnesses the fire of rap and the cool of jazz, transcending genres and generations...