Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come-Live at the C
Uncompromising and endlessly controversial, Cecil Taylor's percussive, intellectual approach to jazz composition, improvisation, and piano remain largely outside the mainstream after more than 40 years. The performances on these live recordings, made in Copenhagen in 1962, are as bracing and unexpected today as they were the night they were created. A classically trained pianist prior to discovering the music of Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Horace Silver, Taylor soon developed a percussive, clustered, impressionistic style that, while taking Monk as a harmonic starting point, charts a course straight for the stratosphere. Indeed, Taylor frequently seems to have dispensed with both melody and form, yet he's brilliant at conveying a broad complex of emotions, from introspection to tenderness to rage. Recorded at the famous Cafe Monmartre, these performances capture Taylor in his classic bass-less trio with drummer Sonny Murray and his longtime foil, alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons. It is a breathtaking, sometimes unnerving, recording.--Fred Goodman