composed by Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor’s music can change your life but not all at once, and never just once, either. Notwithstanding its outward ferocity, starting with his twenty-fingered piano technique, the effect is more like serial concussions just over the horizon. And the outward ferocity is not all that; all of his pieces have portals in them. This 1966 track was the longest he had been able to put on record up to that time, and consequently it breathes in a way that the hyper-wound constructions on the previous Unit Structures do not (although they do plenty of other things). But this 18-minute track is a key to the even lengthier ensemble pieces that followed once he was able to start recording again (seven years later). Relaxed time frames and orchestration bring out his distinctively lyrical themes – and there are none more haunting than the melod[ies] of this piece - that his superlative solo playing often conceals. The effect is the reverse of hearing a Mozart concerto transcribed for two pianos. You hear how the piano and orchestra parts mirror each other, yet without duplication, set in a structure so precisely interlaced that a deviation feels like falling off the planet.
Note: 25 secular essays (each one exactly 200 words long) about 25 songs, to appear one per day during Advent (or so) from Nov. 27 through Dec. 21.
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