Elvin Jones, Cecil Taylor, Dewey Redman - Momentum Space (1999)

1.Nine
2.Bekei
3.Spoonin'
4.Life as...
5.It
6.Is
7.Dew.

Momentum Space throws a sucker punch with its billing as a trio album, when in fact the three legends--tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, drummer Elvin Jones, and pianist Cecil Taylor--only perform together on two selections. But when they perform as a trio, it's a rare treat. On Redman's "Nine" Taylor unravels his customary arsenal of tone clusters, percussive jabs, and jarring trills. Jones keeps Taylor's nervy activity and Redman's sweet passionate cries in forward motion as he propels the composition with thundering polyrhythms. The trio takes a comparatively reflective view on Taylor's "Is," in which the pianist's broken-glass-like shards are balanced by Redman's Ornette-ish wails. The other compositions feature the musicians in either duet or solo settings. Taylor's solo performance of "Life As" finds the CD at its most pensive, while the duet between Redman and Jones on "Spoonin'" amounts to the CD's most playful and swinging moments. All in all, Momentum Space results in an engaging, if not erratic, listening experience. --John Murph

Dewey Redman (tenor saxophone); Cecil Taylor (piano); Elvin Jones (drums).

Recorded at Avatar Recording Studio, New York, New York on August 4 & 5, 1998. Includes liner notes by Cecil Taylor, Dewey Redman and Philippe Carles.

Few names conjure the ideal of sonic adventurousness as distinctly as those of Dewey Redman, Cecil Taylor, and Elvin Jones. With MOMENTUM SPACE, this explosive triumvirate comes together to present an uncommonly challenging and intriguing recording. At every turn, Redman's expressive wails, Taylor's dynamic explorations, and Jones' bombastic thunder seem to challenge the very laws of nature. Indeed, what we hear are three musical forces converging as one, pushing, pulling, blasting, and pounding their way into uncharted territory.
The opening "Nine," an eleven-minute wall of sound that proceeds to shake the foundations of all you hold dear, should be enough to clear away any preconceptions. "Bekei," Jones' staggering solo piece, is an inspiring percussive statement that only a master of his magnitude could proclaim. The Redman/Jones duet "Spoonin" blasts us with the spirit of Coltrane before Taylor leads us on a solo journey of the imagination with "Life As." "It" and the epic "Is" are much too complex to explain with words, but the bizarre sounds that Redman produces on the brief "Dew" can be described with but one: unforgettable.

Cecil Taylor - Conquistador! (1966)

This album and "Unit Structures" (made earlier in 1966 for Blue Note) were the first recordings of the fully matured Cecil Taylor. The pianist/composer finally mastered the art of mixing composed and improvised music into a dense, powerful soundscape and found musicians who understood his concept. Andrew Cyrille brings Taylor's unique rhythmic sense to life with ferocious power. The front line is alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons and trumpeter Bill Dixon; the bassists are Henry Grimes and Alan Silva. An avant garde classic with one alternate take added to the original album.

01.Conquistador
02.with (exit)
03.with (exit) [alternate take].

Cecil Taylor (piano)
Jimmy Lions (alto sax)
Bill Dixon (trumpet)
Henry Grimes, Alan Silva (bass)
Andrew Cyrille (drums).

Cecil Taylor - Loooking Ahead (1958)

1.Luyah! The Glorious Step
2.African Violets (Cecil Taylor & Earl Griffith)
3.Of What
4.Wallering
5.Toll
6.Excursion On A Wobbly Rail.

Cecil Taylor: piano
Earl Griffith: vibra-harp
Dennis Charles: drums
Buell Neidlinger: bass.
Nola's Penthouse Studios, NYC, June 9, 1958.

One of Cecil Taylor's earliest recordings, Looking Ahead! does just that while still keeping several toes in the tradition. It's an amazing document of a talent fairly straining at the reins, a meteor about to burst onto the jazz scene and render it forever changed. With Earl Griffith on vibes, Taylor uses an instrumentation he would return to occasionally much later on, one that lends an extra percussive layer to the session, emphasizing the new rhythmic attacks he was experimenting with. Griffith sounds as though he might have been a conceptual step or two behind the other three but, in the context of the time, this may have served to make the music a shade more palatable to contemporary tastes. But the seeds are clearly planted and one can hear direct hints of Taylor's music to come, all the way to 1962 at least (the Nefertiti trio with Sunny Murray). Pieces like "Luyah! The Glorious Step" and "Of What" are so fragmented (in a traditional sense) and so bristlingly alive that one can understand Whitney Baillett's observation of crowds at a Taylor concert fidgeting "as if the ground beneath had suddenly become unbearably hot." The contributions of bassist Buell Neidlinger and drummer Dennis Charles cannot be understated; they breathe with Taylor as one unit and appear to be utterly in sync with his ideas. When the pianist edges into his solo on "Excursion on a Wobbly Rail," it's as though he's meeting the tradition head on, shaking hands and then rocketing off into the future. Looking Ahead! is a vital recording from the nascence of one of the towering geniuses of modern music and belongs in any jazz fan's collection. ~ Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide.