New Book – 2024: Story(s) of Cecil Taylor was a truly fascinating artist. A revolutionary and visionary pianist

The number of biographies dedicated to historical figures in free jazz has finally gained momentum in recent years. There are still some key figures in this musical genre who have yet to have their stories told. The first biography of German master Peter Brötzmann is scheduled for later this year.

And now we have the opportunity to read a book dedicated to the life and art of the genius Cecil Taylor – with the book on Eric Dolphy also promised for this year, 2024 will be a special moment in this regard.

If Taylor, one of the fathers of free jazz, is a must-read in any book that addresses the jazz universe, there was still a work missing that looked at him in more depth and broadly. That is why it is worth celebrating the arrival of In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor (Volke Werlag, 344 pages), written by Philip Freeman.

The general outline of Cecil Percival Taylor’s story is well-known: born on March 25, 1929, in Long Island, NYC, he graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston and recorded his first album, “Jazz Advance,” in September 1956. From there he began to make a name for himself, releasing important records for the modernization of jazz until the early 1960s.

But after a tour of Scandinavia in October and November 1962, alongside Sunny Murray and his faithful squire, saxophonist Jimmy Lyons (a trip during which the seminal “Live at the Cafe Montmartre,” one of the inaugurating titles of free jazz, was recorded), he spent several years without recording – the book is quite interesting in this part, showing the steps he took from then until recording a new album, which would only happen in 1966, when the classic “Unit Structures” came out.

Due to this hiatus in recording, it seems that Taylor was in a vacuum during this period of almost four years, but in fact he remained active in different ways (there are more than ten pages dedicated to this period). Then came the improvised concerts for solo piano, which became fundamental in his career from the 1970s onwards. And, already a revered name in the scene, he would lead different groups (or many Units, which included Andrew Cyrille, William Parker, Raphe Malik, Alan Silva, Sirone, Thurman Barker, Ronald Shannon Jackson, among many others) until his death on April 5, 2018.

These passages known to all those interested in Cecil Taylor are scrutinized by Freeman, allowing readers to delve deeper into his vision of this unique artist than ever before. To this end, the author conducted many interviews with those who knew him and searched through archives, periodicals, books, everything that helped tell this story with greater precision. Although the book was written after Taylor’s death, Freeman had the opportunity to interview and accompany him in February 2016, when he produced a special article about him for The Wire magazine. The author describes this meeting in the Introduction, estimating that he spent about 10 or 11 hours in the pianist’s company, over two consecutive days.

The book is divided into 11 parts, in addition to an extensive Foreword written by Markus Müller, following a temporal route, with each chapter covering a period. The first part goes from 1929 to 1947, dealing with his childhood and first contacts with the piano; the second, from 1948 to 1956, in which his training and beginnings as a professional musician are the focus; and so on, until the period 2013-2018, which closes the work.

Taylor was never much of a talker about himself and his music; Reading different interviews he gave in his life or listening to his statements in “Imagine The Sound” or “All The Notes”, documentaries that focus on him, we see an artist who seemed to always have an incorporated persona.

In the introduction, we read a statement by music critic Howard Mandel that summarizes this impression well: “I’ve met Cecil Taylor but can’t say I know him… I’ve only fleetingly encountered the person behind the performer”. From there, you can imagine the challenge of writing a biography of him without getting lost in anecdotes, stories without another side and inaccuracies of all kinds. Freeman makes a choice that he exposes at the beginning of the book: not to try to scrutinize Taylor’s personal life, his intimate daily life, especially since he never gave any room for it. He asks: “Why attempt to learn the ‘truth’ about a man who made it clear, over the course of a career spanning almost six decades, that what was of primary importance to him was not his life, but his art?”. So, don’t expect any particular details about the life of this unique figure. After all, what really matters is your art, right?

And his art was not limited to the piano. Taylor also found dance (which he began to dedicate himself to as a child) and poetry to be very important means of expression. Taylor’s poetry can be heard on some recordings, such as the opening of the album “Tzotzil/Mummers/Tzotzil”; there is also a unique album dedicated to this side of him, “Chinampas” (1987), where he only recites, without touching the piano with his fingers. “Taylor averred that his vocal performances had been improvised, unrehearsed – that he had chosen in the moment how to present these lines. And that is audible when one listens; it’s possible to hear him thinking, considering his next gambit between breaths”, we read in the part where Chinampas is discussed. With its more than 300 pages, In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor does its job of bringing us closer to the universe of this brilliant artist and allowing us to rediscover him in a more systematically organized way. But there is a desire that many of the stories presented here were explored in greater depth and at greater length.

Cecil Taylor was a truly fascinating artist. A revolutionary and visionary pianist. Although he was never particularly popular, even due to the avant-garde nature of his art (is he the one that the wider jazz audience will remember when the subject is improvised solo piano concerts, something he started before anyone else? Unfortunately not…), he also had his glories and recognitions at different moments in his career of more than six decades.

The book reminds us that he was recognized with the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973, with the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1991 and the Kyoto Prize in 2013. He left behind a broad and fundamental discography, with around 80 titles. And he performed for decades in different corners of the world. We Brazilians were lucky enough to see him perform in the country on two occasions: the first in June 1989, with his trio, performing in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

For those who were too young to have witnessed that historic moment, there was another chance in October 2007, when he performed as a soloist at the Ibirapuera Auditorium (SP) and again in Rio. Those who were able to see Cecil Taylor in action enjoyed one of the greatest moments in contemporary music, the kind that you carry with you for the rest of your life.

Reading this biography now means being able to rediscover the art of this pianist from new angles, to be dazzled once again – or rather, many times over – by his unique and incomparable music.