Search - Cecil Taylor :: World of

Cecil's World is strange, but it is new and beautiful!

Il Dottore | Buffalo, NY | 03/13/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Cecil Taylor is clearly one of the greatest piano players of the century in any genre. Having said that, he is not by any means easy to listen to: plenty of people dismiss it as pounding, Branford Marsalys (disapointingly!) called it "self indulgent BS" on Ken Burns' Jazz doc. But if you are interested in hearing the music on its own terms, and have even a slight appreciation of Shoenberg as well as Monk, Powell, and Ornette Coleman, you will HAVE to admit it is Virtuosic at an almost inhuman level.
Oh yea, "The World of"... Compared to some of the later stuff this is a walk in the park!! Really, Taylor is pretty "far out" on the keyboard, but Dennis and Beull stick with traditional jazz rythms behind, which makes this date (all the dates with this trio) invaluable. The music here is nothing less than astonishing!! You can still here echos of influences: Duke, Monk, certainly Powell. But then Taylor turns them all inside out and twists them into unimaginable patterns and quirky variations. He wild flights and disonant flurries are full of brilliant new concepts and would change jazz drastically and forever. This album is both far out and enjoyable. It is much more accesible than, say, his later trio and large band stuff. If you are at all interested in experienceing cecil (I dont see how you can be interested in Jaz piano and overlook him), I would recommend starting with Jazz Advance as an intro, then moving on to this, The World Of, as a second, and then trying ,Silent tongues, as a more daring initiation into his freest and more relenles and dissonant work. Get this and enjoy, it will open new worlds for you!"

For Avant-Garde Heads Only!

Scott Woods | Columbus, Ohio United States | 05/11/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Cecil Taylor's work is characterized by hard-hitting, VERy fast piano playing that doesn't conform much to traditional jazz structures of melody or rhythm. It requires having approached jazz through some other course first to appreciate, which in a nutshell means that if you aren't into avant-garde jazz (Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, etc.), this is going to sound like so much pounding on instruments. Even when he's doing standards ("This Nearly Was Mine" and "Lazy Afternoon" on this record) they don't fall into any traditional interpretation...they go WAY leftfield, and fans of the avant style wouldn't have it any other way.If, however, you're a fan of smooth jazz or even just traditional jazz (Coltrane, Miles, etc.) this record - nay, MOST of Taylor's records - will drive you out the room. Listen to a friend's first and see if you're into it. This is NOT an impulse purchase."