Cecil Taylor
- Type: Classic Bandleader
- Country: United States
- Born: March 25, 1929 in Long Island City, New York, United States
- Died: April 5, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York, United States
- Active: 1929 - 2018
Biography
Cecil Taylor was a revolutionary American pianist and poet, celebrated as a primary pioneer of free jazz. Classically trained, he developed a unique and physically demanding performance style, treating the piano as 'eighty-eight tuned drums' to create dense clusters of sound and complex polyrhythms. His influential concept of 'unit structures' provided a framework for his intense, atonal improvisations, moving far beyond traditional harmony and melody. Landmark albums like 'Jazz Advance', and the #Blue Note# releases 'Unit Structures' and 'Conquistador!', showcase his uncompromising vision that challenged the boundaries of music and influenced generations of avant-garde artists.
Genres
Cecil Taylor Discography
- Jazz Advance (1957) - Album - rated 3.99/5
- Looking Ahead! (1959) - Album - rated 3.79/5
- The World of Cecil Taylor (1960) - Album - rated 5/5
- Live at the Cafe Montmartre (1963) - Album - rated 4.26/5
- Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come (1965) - Album - rated 4.07/5
- Unit Structures (1966) - Album - rated 4.55/5
- Conquistador! (1968) - Album - rated 4.75/5
- Indent (1973) - Album - rated 4.28/5
- Silent Tongues (1975) - Album - rated 4.26/5
- Air Above Mountains <Buildings Within> (1977) - Album - rated 4.09/5
- Dark to Themselves (1977) - Album - rated 4.19/5
- Cecil Taylor Unit (1978) - Album - rated 4.58/5
- The Cecil Taylor Unit (1978) - Album - rated 4.46/5
- 3 Phasis (1979) - Album - rated 4.01/5
- One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye (1980) - Album - rated 4.49/5
- Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! (1981) - Album - rated 3.83/5
- It Is in the Brewing Luminous (1981) - Album - rated 4.03/5
- Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants) (1985) - Album - rated 4.03/5
- In Florescence (1990) - Album - rated 3.5/5
- Mixed (1998) - Compilation
- The Tree of Life (1998) - Album
- Melancholy (1999) - Album - rated 3.98/5
- The Willisau Concert (2002) - Album - rated 4.19/5
- At Iridium 2004 (2026) - Album - rated 4.1/5
Members
- Cecil Taylor Segments II - Member
- Gunter Hampel - Member
- Andre Martinez - Member
- Cecil Taylor - Member
- John Tchicai - Member
- Jimmy Lyons - Member
- William Parker - Member
- Karen Borca - Member
- Rashid Bakr - Member
- Frank Wright - Member
- Enrico Rava - Member
- Tomasz Stańko - Member
- Cecil Taylor Trio and Quintet - Member
- Ben Thomas - Member
- Russell Whyte - Member
- Johannes Arolt - Member
- Sebastian Robalino - Member
- Margarit Aleksiev - Member
- Nikolay Todorov - Member
- Roberto Perian - Member
- Various - Member
- Cecil Taylor Quartet - Member
- Tom Wilson - Member
- The Cecil Taylor Quartet - Member
- Buell Neidlinger - Member
- Denis Charles - Member
- Dave Coleman - Member
- Steve Lacy - Member
- The Cecil Taylor Quintet - Member