Jazz Advance

Artist: Cecil Taylor
Label: Blue Note Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 077778446224
EAN: 0077778446224
ASIN: B000005HDR

Release Date: 1991-07-02

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Listmania:

Cecil Taylor Chronology -- Greatest Hits
Great Modern Jazz by Living Artists
Cutting Edge Jazz Pianists Since 1950
Music Every Free Jazz Fan Should Know
cool albums and books
Jazz 13 (note: Ken Burns, this
Great "Self-Indulgent Bullsh*t" (ATTN: Branford Marsalis)

Tracks:

Bemsha Swing
Charge 'Em Blues
Aure
Song
You'd Be So Nice To Come Home
Rick Kick Shaw
Sweet & Lovely

Similar Items:

Looking Ahead!
Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come
The World of Cecil Taylor
Conquistador
Jazz in Silhouette

Customer Reviews:

my first cecil taylor. excellent stuff........2007-03-29

mr taylor's piano playing on this recording from 1956 is unique and inventive, yet completely accessible to the listener. his quirky compositions and fresh cover versions are a joy. steve lacy adds some excellent soprano sax on 2 tracks and the rhythm section work (provided by buell neidlinger on bass and dennis charles on drums) carries along mr taylor's music just fine. recommended.

Sources and Beginnings .......2007-01-14

This is good music played by real greats, but to me feels a bit stiff when compared the music that would come later. This was my 1st cecil taylor disc and it did not really resonate until I heard his later, more unique work like "Silent Tounges" and "Unit Structures."

For those coming to this music with a real love of Ornette coleman, Steve Lacy or especially Ellington or Monk, this disc would be a good start, and all established Taylor fans should at least hear this. But in it's nature as a document of an essentially formative music, it presents the listener with a unique set of challenges which don't seem to be present on his later albums, even if they are perhaps superficially more "dissonant." This music feels hybridized in a way later work feels complete and fully concieved.

This disc shows his early roots,and it would not be my advice you start here, but rather go for "Looking Ahead" (with a same-ish group 1 year later) or "Silent Tounges" (stunning solo concert from the 70's) to get a better sense of what Taylor's mature style is really about. Then dip into the denser ensembles on Unit Sturctures or Student Studies.... and then hear this disc as to understand a musician whose work you care about, rather than using this disc as a test to ask "Do I want to care about this music?"

rsktmc should SHUTTUP.......2006-02-24

The person rsktmc is a tasteless idiot. "Not for the squeamish" he says. I say "Not for worthless idiots like rsktmc who most likely like smooth jazz." This CD is awesome, just a little bit further out than Monk but not too far out there.

Birth of a giant........2005-06-21

History has a way of making the radical seem conservative, and certainly within the context of Cecil Taylor's music, his debut album, "Jazz Advance" is rather conservative. Taylor, known for his relentless, dense music, did not emerge fully formed (although even at this early date, his music is far removed from his hard bop contemporaries), but developed over time. For those of us who enjoy Taylor's music, this record is a historical curiosity, for anyone else, its either going to sound as one permutation further from the early Ornette Coleman idiom (indeed, this music is far closer to Coleman's sound than anything Taylor would be doing in the '60s or later). My understanding is that when this was first released, it raised quite a stir. Its a bit difficult to see why.

Taylor is largely melodic-- performing pieces with coherent themes-- his experimentations seem to be in the use of block chords, odd inversions, and in soloing underneath the primary voice at this point. The record is four originals and four standards, and as one would suspect, Taylor largely breathes on his own compositions. He is backed by nearly inaudible bassist Buell Neidlinger and drummer Dennis Charles, with soprano sax player Steve Lacy on two tracks. Neidlinger and Charles are far closer in the hard bop idiom-- their performances swing, Charles in particular is playing way inside hard bop. This puts them a bit at odds with Taylor, who, while he gives more space than he would on his later work, is still more of a neoclassical improvising pianist than a jazz pianist. When Lacy plays, Taylor's form of comping doesn't seem fully formed, or Lacy doesn't seem quite prepared to play inside Taylor's environment, and as a result he sounds somewhat detached from the pianist.

The sounds of the future can clearly be heard on several tracks, "Bemsha Swing" features many of Taylor's clustered chords and runs, solo piano take on "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" presents the theme in a barely recognizable fashion and is as close to his future organized chaos as he'd get, and while original "Rick Kick Shaw" is far away from where he'd end up, its the first sign of the short of aggression that Taylor would harness in the future. The music is enjoyable enough, but Taylor would reach such heights that its hard to not listen to this without comparing it to his future works. The other complaint is the sound-- this issue is from 1991 and is in desparate need of remastering.

In the end, this is an album of historical value. If you're looking for an introduction to Taylor's music and aren't ready to dive head first into his methods, try "Looking Ahead!", its a far superior album by which point Neidlinger and Charles (who reprise their roles) were far more closely integrated with Taylor's music.

You better not be putting down my main man!.......2005-06-12

Just a second,Christopher Forbes "weirdears." Don't be putting down my main man Denis Charles! He swings daddy-o, and don't you forget it! Weak link? Your taste is weak! Anything Mr. Charles plays on deserves 5 stars. It's not a matter of opinion. It's a matter of fact!

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