Pianist Cecil Taylor, a legend of free jazz whose career spanned six decades, died Thursday evening at his home in Brooklyn, New York, NPR confirmed early Friday. He was 89.
“Cecil is of jazz, and also beyond it,” Ben Ratliff, author and longtime jazz critic for The New York Times, told NPR. “The thing that Cecil was doing in 1959 or whatever, the stuff that had basically a steady beat, but was pushing out on all sides with strange harmonies and strange dynamics — you know, we’re doing stuff now that’s more like that. And to think that at that point in the late ’50s, Cecil Taylor was just saying, ‘Yeah, this is the right way to play, this is the way to do it,’ is truly amazing.”
He was a pivotal figure of free jazz and released one of the essential albums of the genre, “Jazz Advance,” in 1956. Along with other leaders,...
“Cecil is of jazz, and also beyond it,” Ben Ratliff, author and longtime jazz critic for The New York Times, told NPR. “The thing that Cecil was doing in 1959 or whatever, the stuff that had basically a steady beat, but was pushing out on all sides with strange harmonies and strange dynamics — you know, we’re doing stuff now that’s more like that. And to think that at that point in the late ’50s, Cecil Taylor was just saying, ‘Yeah, this is the right way to play, this is the way to do it,’ is truly amazing.”
He was a pivotal figure of free jazz and released one of the essential albums of the genre, “Jazz Advance,” in 1956. Along with other leaders,...
- 4/6/2018
- by Variety Staff
- Variety Film + TV
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