Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures (1980 Japanese Blue Note Stereo LP)

Vinyl: EX
Sleeve: EX
Obi: EX

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Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures | Vinyl LP - 1980 Japanese Blue Note Stereo Reissue (GXK 8147, Blue Note Masterpiece Selection 150, King Record Co. Ltd.)

Cecil Taylor signed to Blue Note in 1966 after a four-year gap in his recording output. He was thirty-seven. The label was already in the process of being absorbed by Liberty Records, but Alfred Lion was still producing, and he recorded Taylor twice in 1966 - this album in May and Conquistador! a few months later. Both featured versions of the same core ensemble: Lyons, Cyrille, Silva and Grimes, with McIntyre and Eddie Gale added for Unit Structures.

The album has four pieces, all written by Taylor. The ten minute "Steps" opens, the seven musicians working simultaneously from the first bar, Cyrille driving hard while the horns move across the range of the ensemble without fixed roles. "Enter, Evening (Soft Line Structure)" is the album's most harmonically approachable piece, with its dark, nocturnal texture and Lyons and McIntyre's alto lines drifting apart and back together above the two bass lines. "Unit Structure/As Of A Now/Section" is nearly eighteen minutes across three internal sections with composed passages alternating with collective improvisation. "Tales (8 Whisps)" gives Taylor more piano space, the full ensemble arriving after an opening that is essentially a duo between Taylor and Cyrille.

Taylor wrote his own notes for the record's back cover in a register that extends from jazz theory to poetry without clearly distinguishing between them.

This is the 1980 Japanese Blue Note Masterpiece Selection 150 reissue (GXK 8147), manufactured by King Record Co. Ltd.