Cecil Taylor: Song

Cecil Taylors 1956 debut for the Transition label was indeed a Jazz Advance, but didnt yet mark the arrival of his full-blown avant-garde approach. Song, for instance, retains some modern jazz conventionssuch as a steady swing beatthat Taylor would later purge from his music. As such, it provides a welcome (or knowable) point of entry into the pianists wondrous sound world. Compared with contemporaneous boppers, Taylor sounds unbound, extending the form, following whims, appearing to play many songs within just one piece. Its revealing his sidemen gravitated to Taylor from such diverse backgrounds: Steve Lacy had been steeped in Dixieland, Dennis Charles self-taught, and Buell Neidlinger classically trained. Taylor's enveloping art should engage as wide-ranging an audience.