David Dalle
Thursday February 16th, 2023 with David Dalle
Black History Month. Cecil Taylor in concert part II: Worlds colliding, Cecil Taylor & Mary Lou Williams together.

In the second part of this trilogy looking at Cecil Taylor live in concert, we will hear one of the most unexpected and surprising musical encounters, Mary Lou Williams, a giant of the gilded age of jazz from the 30's to the 50's, and Cecil Taylor, the iconoclastic avant-gardist, performing together at Carnegie Hall. A piano duo concert featuring Mary Lou Williams and Cecil Taylor sounds like something dreamt up in the fevered imagination of an impish impresario, but this actually arose from the artists themselves. Mary Lou Williams had first encountered Cecil Taylor in 1969. Taylor had been listening to Williams since 1951 when he was a conservatory student in Boston, and, in the mid-70's, Taylor began regularly attending a club in New York where Williams performed, sitting near the piano, and being very complimentary. This encouraged Williams to broach the subject of performing a concert together, and Taylor actually came up with the title "Embraced" for the concert (and subsequent album). Mary Lou Williams wanted the concert to be a bridge between jazz history and new, modern jazz. She saw jazz history up to that point as being comprised of four eras: "the Spirituals", "Ragtime", "Kansas City Swing", and then "Bop or Modern Jazz". Williams actually took a very dim view of post-bop jazz, even as far as writing (in the liner notes for the album!) "After the Bop Era creation in Jazz stopped. The music moved off in different directions. There has been nothing new in Jazz since the Bop era." So it would seem that that epitome of avant-garde, Cecil Taylor, would be anathema to Williams. However, she also wrote "Cecil thrilled me with his integrity and originality. I call him my 'Giant of the Avant-Garde'...there's a love we have for one another musically". Mary Lou Williams put forth the funds for the concert at Carnegie Hall and organized the promotion of it. She planned the concert in two halves, the first, with her compositions highlighting the four historical eras of jazz, and the second part, being compositions by Taylor. She had high hopes for the concert, writing "Here's hoping other musicians will be inspired by what we do together in this concert--will pick up on the scene and have the same love for each other. That's what this music is: Love." Unfortunately, the concert was already derailed during the 10 days of rehearsal. They argued frequently. Taylor was completely opposed to playing composed music from Williams' arrangements, and he complained bitterly that Williams refused to play his music the way he wanted. Taylor also complained that Williams had hired a rhythm section with Bob Cranshaw on bass and Mickey Roker on drums without consulting him. The concert went ahead, and it was far more of a clash than an embrace! They were both brilliant musicians playing the same instrument, but it was more of a heated argument between two strong-willed individuals who speak different languages. Sadly there was a certain amount of bitterness which lingered long after the concert. Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker have mostly tried to forget the concert, one of them even stating he has never listened to the recording. The concert and subsequent recording were not well reviewed. I, however, take a different view. I have never heard a performance like this; two titans of the piano, both striving to have their voice heard the loudest, the result was not what was hoped for, but it is glorious, riotous, explosion of music! I love this unique recording and am very happy this clash occurred!