Unit Structures

Cecil Taylor | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B000005HD4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,288 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #8 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Avant-Garde

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Jazz Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 1-JAN-2002

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of form and improvisation, December 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Unit Structures (Audio CD)

It's hard to understand why anyone would be proud not to understand something and the listener from Seattle's remark that this music has no form proves he doesn't. What established Unit Structures as a classic is that Taylor paved the way for composition within the sphere of so-called free jazz. Most of this music is tightly ordered (Taylor gets remarkable sonorities from the two reeds especially) and the solos elaborate on the "unit structures." Maybe the trick for a new listener is not to listen too hard, but rather let the music wash over you until you can hear it with some familiarity. I've been listening to Taylor for more about 15 years and for me this album remains one of his most refreshing, enigmatic, and joyful works. Unfortunately, Taylor's liner notes aren't too helpful; for a better understanding of his music, check out Gary Giddins's Visions of Jazz and Ekkehard Jost's Free Jazz.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cecil's Best, August 9, 2002

By 

Christopher Forbes "weirdears" (Brooklyn,, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Unit Structures (Audio CD)

This album, along with Taylor's other Blue Note Album Conquistador, mark the first moves by Taylor into his fully mature group style. Most of his work since these two ground-breaking recordings, has mined the veins he discovered in this period. Of the two albums, Unit Structures is the more tightly organized, all appearences to the contrary.

Unit Structures really has to be understood as a series of compositions. Unlike much of the New York avant-garde music of the 60's, this really isn't "free" jazz. Taylor's music is always highly controlled...just listen to how his piano "directs" the soloists and the rhythm section. His is not a cacophonous art, despite it's surface. Many of the works are based on predetermined modal scales, improvisations based on precomposed motives and themes, and obssessive development of tiny rhythmic cells. In many ways, Taylor shows influences of the European avant-garde (or influence on the European avant-garde) and yet the music always has a sense of it's jazz, blues and African roots. As such, I think Taylor may have been the most influential jazz composer of the 60's...paving the way for the experiements of Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill and other structuralists of the late 20th century avant-garde in jazz.

I think many others have hit on the way to listen to this music. Don't try to figure it out right away. Let the waves of sound wash over you first. As you listen more and more, the sense and structure of this music becomes more clear. This is music that can engage the head, but engages the heart first. It is almost shamanic music.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging but rewarding, March 20, 2004

By 

Jakob Hellberg (Gothenburg, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unit Structures (Audio CD)

Before going into the review I would like to say that the people who claim that this is just noise does not know what they are talking about. I have listened to free- (which this record really isn't) and avantgarde jazz extensively for the last ten years and there are undoubtedly some records that can be described as noise but this isn't one of them. Just because the music puts more emphasis on textures and improvisation than on conventional melodies and "swing" doesn't make it noise. You guys have a lot to learn!!!

About the music, this features one of the best groups Taylor ever led. Drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassists Henry Grimes and Alan Silva
and altoist Jimmy Lyons were "regular" (if that can be said about guys who rarely had the chance to perform in public)band members of taylors various groups over the years. Added to this nucleus was multi-reedist McIntyre and trumpeter Eddie Gale Stevens. Especially the former is crucial to the overall sound of the album. The basses were used in a very cool way:Grimes kept the pulse going, functioning as a "traditonal" bass while Silva was "freer" and played with a bow, often in a very high register, commenting on the soloists various movements.

The first song "Steps" features McIntyre on alto (Stevens does not play on this song). It starts with a very complicated stop-start theme before an almost boogie-woogieish piano line introduces a screaming, intense McIntyre solo. The energy level is VERY high with Taylor variously playing/changing patterns and improvising along with the soloists. The greatest part of the song is Taylors solo which starts as a piano-drums duet before kicking into overdrive with the basses joining in. Awesome!!!

The next song "Enter, Evening" is a ballad of sorts with MCIntyre playing oboe. This could have drifted into impressionistic muzak but Taylors edgy playing keeps everyone on their toes. I have always heard this song as a dialogue between Silva and the soloists. His playing really comes through on this number. I really like the trumpet solo on this one...

The title track is VERY complicated with at least 20 different, short motives being played in various instrument combinations before McIntyres bass clarinet solo begins and the madness starts!!! I don't like the trumpet solo on this one but otherwise it's perfect and as far away from meaningless noise as it gets.

The last song is a Taylor solo piece (with drums and bass) that is brilliantly constructed. Because of the many instruments, Taylors solos on the other songs are quite short and this album seems to focus more on group interactions than individual solos so this song gives Taylor an opportunity to stretch out.

This album is really Cecils big break from the jazz traditon. It was his first proper recording in three and a half years and he had tons of great ideas that he just wanted to get out of his system. Cecil Taylor recorded another album, "Conquistador" a bit later which is even better. That album has only two songs and only one saxophone which means that there are more opportunities for the players (especially Cecil) to stretch out. I's also MUCH more accessible than"Unit Structures" with less rapsodic and more melodic themes. Unfortunately, it's out of print. Blue Note should really reissue that album-it would probably cost them much less than a Norah "BORING" Jones marketing campaign...