Happy Birthday, Cecil Taylor

Jazz pianist Cecil Taylor turns 84 today. Taylor was born on March 25, 1929, in New York City. He is regarded as one of the most advanced and radical improvisers in jazz, with what one critic described as an "intense atonal percussive approach [that] involves playing the piano as if it were a set of drums."

Taylor's performances at the Five Spot Cafe in the late 1950s, along with those of Ornette Coleman, are generally seen as one of the origins of free jazz.

In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends two albums by Taylor:

• Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures (Blue Note), available from Amazon.com.
  
• Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues (Arista), available from Amazon.com.
  

Here, an 80-year-old Cecil Taylor performs in Perugia, Italy, in July 2009.

Robert
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