2 Ts for a Lovely T | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | 2002 | |||
Recorded | August 27 – September 1, 1990 | |||
Venue | Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London | |||
Genre | Free jazz | |||
Label | Codanza Records | |||
Cecil Taylor chronology | ||||
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2 Ts for a Lovely T is a 10-CD limited-edition live album by American pianist Cecil Taylor. It was recorded during August 27 - September 1, 1990 at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, and was released in 2002 on the Codanza label. The album features the group known as the "Feel Trio," with Taylor on piano, William Parker on bass, and Tony Oxley on drums. [1] [2]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
The Guardian | [3] |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [4] |
In a review for The Guardian , John Fordham wrote: "These sessions reveal the high-pressure intricacies of a Taylor improvisation with remarkable clarity. Oxley's flickering, clickety figures, tiny ringing sounds, tabla-like sonorities and shimmering splashes complement Parker's thick, pliable sound and impulsive ingenuity, and Taylor's headlong runs and fierce density are beautifully caught by the recording - it's like having a grand piano in your room, particularly with the muscularity of the instrument's bass register... The transparency of the sound enhances the differences of intensity and shape across these shows, though the set is intentionally a chronicle of the way a brilliant free-improvising ensemble works over a sustained period, rather than the interpretation of a repertoire. A very specialised item, certainly, but for Taylor disciples, and the more generally musically curious, it is breathtaking." [3]
The authors of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings wrote: "It's rare that Taylor has been documented at such length, and the results will repay study by all his admirers." [4]
John Eyles, writing for All About Jazz , commented: "2 Ts for a Lovely T, recorded live during a 1990 five-night residency at Ronnie Scott's, London, benefits from its sheer scale and the group interactions it captured. When all three are playing flat-out at the same time, the results are simply breath-taking." [5]
All compositions by Cecil Taylor.
Recorded during August 27 - September 1, 1990 at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, London.
Cecil Percival Taylor was an American pianist and poet.
Evan Shaw Parker is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation.
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards.
Tony Oxley was an English free improvising drummer and electronic musician.
Barry John Guy is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there.
Sylvie Courvoisier is a composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 and was named Pianist of the Year for 2023 in the international critics poll of Spanish jazz publication El Intruso. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated the distinctive character of Courvoisier’s art this way: “Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”
Jazz Advance is the debut album by pianist Cecil Taylor, recorded for the Transition label in September 1956. The album features performances by Taylor with Buell Neidlinger, Denis Charles and Steve Lacy.
Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants) is an album by Cecil Taylor recorded in Milan, Italy on October 22–24, 1984 and released on the Soul Note label. The album features performances by Taylor with Jimmy Lyons, Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko, Frank Wright, John Tchicai, Gunter Hampel, Karen Borca, Andre Martinez, William Parker and Rashid Bakr who are billed as The Orchestra of Two Continents.
Live in Bologna is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded in Bologna on November 3, 1987 and released on the Leo label. The album features a concert performance by Taylor with Thurman Barker, William Parker, Carlos Ward and Leroy Jenkins.
Nailed is a live album by Cecil Taylor, Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Tony Oxley recorded on September 26, 1990 at the Bechstein Concert Hall in Berlin and released on the FMP label.
Chinampas is a spoken word album by avant-garde jazz pianist Cecil Taylor on which he reads his poetry accompanied by the sound of bells, tympani, and small percussion. Taylor performed all of the vocal and instrumental parts, which are overdubbed. A note on the album jacket states: "Chinampa – an Aztec word meaning 'floating garden'."
Looking Corona is a live album featuring performances by Cecil Taylor with Harald Kimmig, Muneer Abdul Fataah, William Parker and Tony Oxley recorded in Berlin on November 3 & 4, 1989 and released on the FMP label.
Looking The Feel Trio is a live album featuring performances by Cecil Taylor with William Parker and Tony Oxley recorded in Berlin on November 2, 1989, and released on the FMP label.
Celebrated Blazons is a live album featuring performances by Cecil Taylor with William Parker and Tony Oxley recorded at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin on June 29, 1990, and released on the FMP label.
Melancholy is a live album by Cecil Taylor's Workshop Ensemble featuring Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Tony Oxley recorded on September 30, 1990, at the Bechstein Concert Hall in Berlin and released on the FMP label.
Trio Music is a double album by Chick Corea, recorded in November 1981 and released by ECM Records in October of the following year. The trio features bassist Miroslav Vitous and drummer Roy Haynes.
Taylor/Dixon/Oxley is a live album by pianist Cecil Taylor, trumpeter Bill Dixon, and drummer Tony Oxley. It was recorded on May 19, 2002 during the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec, and was released in 2002 by Les Disques Victo.
Almeda is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded during the "Total Music Meeting" at the "Podewil", the headquarters of the Kulturprojekte Berlin non-profit organisation, on November 2, 1996, and released in 2004 on the FMP label. The album features Taylor with eight other musicians, and is a recording of a single performance lasting over an hour. The same group recorded the album The Light of Corona the following day. In 2012, FMP also released Almeda , with the same musicians, as part of their Archive Edition.
Live in the World is a live album by the David S. Ware Quartets. Six tracks were recorded in Switzerland in 1998, and feature Ware on saxophone, Matthew Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass, and Susie Ibarra on drums. The remaining tracks were recorded in two locations during 2003: Terni, Italy, with Ware, Shipp, Parker and drummer Hamid Drake; and Milano, Italy, with Drake replaced by Guillermo E. Brown. The album was released as a triple CD set by Thirsty Ear Recordings in 2005.
Naan Tso is an album by the free improvisation ensemble known as Foxes Fox, featuring saxophonist Evan Parker, pianist Steve Beresford, double bassist John Edwards, and drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo. It was recorded on October 27, 2004, at Gateway Studios in London, and was released in 2005 by Psi Records. The album was recorded five years after the group's debut album, and roughly a year prior to the departure of Moholo-Moholo, who moved back to his native South Africa in September 2005 after years of exile in England.