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Artist
Cecil Taylor
12+ albums
free jazzjazzAvant-GardepianoAvant-Garde Jazz
about
Cecil Percival Taylor (New York City, March 25, 1929 – April 5, 2018) was an American pianist, composer and poet. Cecil Taylor is generally acknowledged to be one of the pioneers and great innovative sources of free jazz. Classically trained, his music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. His piano technique has been likened to percussion, for example described as "eighty-eight tuned drums" (referring to the number of keys on a standard piano). Taylor was born and raised in the Corona, Queens neighborhood of New York City. As an only child to a middle-class family, Taylor's mother encouraged him to play music at an early age. He learned piano at six and went on to study at New York College and New England Conservatory. After first steps in rhythm and blues and swing-styled small groups in the early '50s, he formed his own band with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1956. His first recording Jazz Advance was released in 1956, and is described by Cook & Morton in the Penguin Guide to Jazz: "While there are still many nods to conventional post-bop form in this set, it already points to the freedoms which the pianist would later immerse himself in". Throughout the 50's and 60's, it was often difficult to find work, despite landmark recordings such as Unit Structures, Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come, and a pairing with John Coltrane (released as Col
