The virtuoso pianist was a key figure in the development of free jazz.
Pianist Cecil Taylor passed away at his home in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday evening, aged 89. At present the cause of his death is unknown, however it has been acknowledged by friends of the musician that his health was failing for some time.
The virtuoso pianist was a key figure in the development of free jazz, spending his career defying the traditions of a genre that produced him and expectations of what a person with his musical education could or should do.
Born in 1929 and raised in Queens, New York, Taylor began playing piano aged 6. After time spent studying at the New York College of Music and Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music – with the latter birthing his interest in the European art music of Stockhausen, Bartok et al – he released his first album as a bandleader, 1956’s Jazz Advance. In the years that followed his debut, Taylor was subject to derision and dismissed by jazz audiences and promoters alike for his unorthodox playing style and references to classical music. However by the mid-sixties Taylor had become widely recognised for his visionary work that was defined by his percussive playing style, intricate polyrhythms, tone clusters and lengthy passages of improvisation.
Throughout his lengthy and prolific career, Taylor collaborated with the likes of John Coltrane, Max Roach, Art Ensemble of Chicago and Steve Lacy to name but a few and aside from his musical accomplishments, Taylor was also a poet which was documented in his 1987 album Chinampas.
Revisit a scene from the 1981 free jazz documentary Imagine The Sound of which Taylor was one of the subjects below.
Rest in peace to another of the greats.
Words by Sam Wilkinson.
Fruit and Grooves Collective 