In an interview this reviewer did with Kenny Wheeler ages ago, the trumpeter talked about his time with the Globe Unity Orchestra and how an hour of playing may have yielded only a minute or two of gold. In this recently released concert recording by pianist Cecil Taylor's Unit, a similar thing happens: towards the end of the 71-minute performance, a subset of Taylor, drummer Sunny Murray and Jerome Cooper on balaphon create magic for a few fleeting moments.
That is not to say that the rest of the evening is not worth the listen. Cooper is there throughout, his only time with Taylor, and it is also the then-erstwhile Revolutionary Ensemble drummer's only documented work with Murray, one of the architects of free drumming, and alto saxophonist/longtime Taylor foil Jimmy Lyons.
This new release is a companion to the Hatology album It Is In The Brewing Luminous, recorded at the titular venue on the previous two days (the complete February 9 show has also been put out recently). Completing the band are Ramsey Ameen (violin) and Alan Silva (bass, cello). The latter had worked with Taylor in the mid '60s on the pianist's Unit Structures and Conquistador! Blue Note albums and alongside him in the Jazz Composer's Orchestra while the former was in his Spring/Summer 1978 band.
For all of Taylor's interesting bands over the years, this particular one stands out for the moments of paired strings and when the drummers double up, creating unusual textures under his dense onslaughts. The performance is split up into five number tracks "for convenience only" but each one could be subtitled for the musician who features prominently: I: Lyons; II: Ameen; III: Silva (on cello); IV: Taylor himself; and V: Murray. But it was always Cecil Taylor's world and we were just living in it, so he is always a monolithic presence.
It is section V that contains the aforementioned trio magic and comes out of a duet with Taylor and Murray where the former dampens his piano strings to sound like a balaphon, which is right where Cooper comes in. This section is also the quietest, allowing for full evaluation of each player and also has a lovely melodic strain running through it, ending with the softest of piano gestures.
45 years on, no one quite does it like Cecil Taylor.
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