| Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 1981 | |||
| Recorded | September 14, 1980 | |||
| Genre | Free jazz | |||
| Length | 47:17 | |||
| Label | MPS MPS 15575 | |||
| Cecil Taylor chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| The Guardian | [2] |
| All About Jazz | [3] |
Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded at Villingen, Germany, on September 14, 1980 and released on the MPS label. The album features eight solo piano performances by Taylor.
According to the album notes, Taylor arrived at the MPS studio on Friday, September 12, and practiced five hours (following a flight from New York and a three hour drive). The next day, he practiced nine hours, and the following day practiced eight hours, then participated in the recording session, which lasted three hours. [4] As he was leaving the studio following the session, he wrote in the guest book: "FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY! FLY!" [4]
The following comments by Taylor appear on the album jacket:
The whole question of "freedom" has been misunderstood, by those on the outside and even by some of the musicians in "the movement." If a man plays for a certain amount of time - scales, licks, what have you - eventually a kind of order asserts itself. Whether he chooses to notate that personal order or engage in polemics about it, it's there. That is, if he's saying anything in his music. There is no music without order - if that music comes from a man's innards. But that order is not necessarily related to any single criterion of what order should be as imposed from the outside. This is not a question, then, of "freedom" as opposed to "nonfreedom", but rather it is a question of recognizing ideas and expressions of order. [5]
A review by Scott Yanow states: "This solo album by Cecil Taylor is a little unusual in that he performs eight originals, some of which are quite concise; "T (Beautiful Young'n)" is only 53 seconds long. That is not to imply that the pianist's music had suddenly mellowed with age but his lyricism is emphasized a bit more than usual and he sometimes sounds quite relaxed (without compromising his music). [6] Writing for AllMusic, Ken Dryden commented: "this 1980 solo piano studio session may be one of [Taylor's] hidden gems, a suite of eight originals that give a better indication of his vast musical knowledge and ability to blend many styles within a single composition. Taylor is very accessible in each of these compositions, drawing from 20th century classical influences in addition to blending bop, avant-garde, brief snippets of boogie and more, creating dramatic pieces that could only be his own. This is easily one of Cecil Taylor's most rewarding record dates, a virtuoso effort that ought to be a starting point for new jazz fans unfamiliar with his work." [1]
In a review for The Guardian , John Fordham wrote: "Taylor often played with ballet dancers... and that artform is constantly evoked here by the flurries of notes punctuated by abrupt halts, tumbling abstract sounds briefly coloured by song-like figures or buoyed up by passing harmonies. For a percussive pianist, some of Taylor's lightly tripping runs are surprisingly dainty, and "Ensaslayi" and "Corn in Sun" are full of jazz's melodic and rhythmic notions, albeit tightly compressed. This set might well be a way into Taylor's music for those who have stopped at the gate before." [2] John Kelman, writing for All About Jazz, called the album "a welcome entry point into the music of an artist for whom 'compromise' and 'pander' are the two dirtiest words of all", and stated: "what Fly!... demonstrates in the clearest possible fashion, is Taylor's broad purview, and complete and utter sense of purpose... Taylor pulls motifs from the ether and works them—stopping, starting, twisting, turning and stretching—with unmistakable animus. Free this may be, but it's still the consequence of split-second decision-making that renders these eight improvisations as far more than the meandering randomness to which free jazz naysayers so often ascribe. There are unmistakable roots in the jazz tradition, with encyclopedic trace elements of everything from stride to bop, but the references are so fleeting that it's easy to miss them. There are changes, too... though how and when they manifest themselves is never anything but unpredictable... There are hints of European classicism, too... even as Taylor relentlessly turns on a dime, moving from one thought to the next with unerring logic and unmistakable inevitability. And there are brief glimpses of real beauty, too, despite often being bookended by more oblique ideation." [3]
Cecil Percival Taylor was an American pianist and poet.
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospel music, and blues, especially in saxophone and piano playing.
Song for My Father is a 1965 album by the Horace Silver Quintet, released on the Blue Note label in 1965. The album was inspired by a trip that Silver had made to Brazil. The cover artwork features a photograph of Silver's father, John Tavares Silver, to whom the title composition was dedicated. "My mother was of Irish and Negro descent, my father of Portuguese origin," Silver recalls in the liner notes: "He was born on the island of Maio, one of the Cape Verde Islands."
Richard Hyman is an American jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellow in 2017. His grandson is designer and artist Adam Charlap Hyman.
Stereo Drive is an album by jazz musician Cecil Taylor featuring John Coltrane. It was released in 1959 on United Artists Records, catalogue UAS 5014. The mono edition was issued as UAL 4014 with the title Hard Driving Jazz credited to The Cecil Taylor Quintet, and later reissued under Coltrane's name in 1962 as Coltrane Time. Compact disc reissues appeared on the Blue Note Records label credited to Coltrane. It is the only known recording featuring both Coltrane and Taylor.
Silent Tongues is a live album by Cecil Taylor on solo piano recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974. It features Taylor's five-movement work "Silent Tongues", along with two encores.
Rollin' is a live album by jazz musician Freddie Hubbard recorded at the Theater Am Ring, Villingen Jazz Festival in Germany's Black Forest and released in 1982 on the MPS label. The album features performances by Hubbard with Dave Schnitter, William Childs, Larry Klein and Carl Burnett.
Into the Hot is an album released under the auspices of Gil Evans featuring a large ensemble under the direction of John Carisi and the Cecil Taylor Unit. The album was released on the Impulse! label in 1962.
Mixed is a compilation album of two avant-garde jazz sessions featuring performances by the Cecil Taylor Unit and the Roswell Rudd Sextet. The album was released on the Impulse! label in 1998 and collects three performances by Taylor with Archie Shepp, Jimmy Lyons, Henry Grimes and Sunny Murray with Ted Curson and Roswell Rudd added on one track which were originally released under Gil Evans' name on Into the Hot (1961). The remaining tracks feature Rudd with Giuseppi Logan, Lewis Worrell, Charlie Haden, Beaver Harris and Robin Kenyatta and were originally released as Everywhere (1966). Essentially these are the three Cecil Taylor tracks from the "Gil Evans album" teamed with Roswell Rudd's Impulse album Everywhere, in its entirety.
Cecil Taylor Unit is an album by Cecil Taylor recorded in April 1978 and released on the New World label. The album features three performances by Taylor on piano with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, trumpeter Raphe Malik, violinist Ramsey Ameen, bassist Sirone and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. The album was recorded during the same sessions that produced 3 Phasis. Taylor is heard on a 96-key Bösendorfer piano about which he commented: it "will stop you cold if you're not ready."
Live in the Black Forest is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded in June 1978 at the SWF-Radio JazzConcert in Kirchzarten, Black Forest, West Germany, and released on the MPS label. The album features two performances by Taylor with Raphe Malik, Jimmy Lyons, Ramsey Ameen, Sirone and Ronald Shannon Jackson.
For Olim is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded in Berlin, Germany on April 9, 1986 and released on the Soul Note label. The album features a solo concert performance by Taylor.
Asia Minor is an album by Jamaican-born jazz trumpeter Dizzy Reece featuring performances recorded in 1962 and originally released on the New Jazz label.
But Not Farewell is an album by American jazz pianist Andrew Hill, recorded in 1990 and released on the Blue Note label in 1991. The album features seven of Hill's original compositions with four performed by his quintet, one duet with saxophonist Greg Osby, and two solo piano pieces.
Update is an album by jazz pianist Mal Waldron released on the Italian Soul Note label in 1987. It features solo performances recorded in Milan, Italy.
Open Strings is an album by French jazz fusion artist Jean-Luc Ponty, released in 1971 on vinyl by the MPS label.
Flying Toward the Sound is a solo album by pianist Geri Allen recorded in 2008 and released on the Motéma label in 2010.
Craig Taborn Trio is the debut album by American jazz pianist Craig Taborn. It was recorded in 1994 and released on the Japanese DIW label.
Where Do We Go from Here? is an album of duets by flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler with pianist John Taylor recorded in 2004 and released on the CAM Jazz label.
Something Different!!!!! is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler recorded on October 25, 1962 at the Academy of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, and originally released in very small quantities on the Swedish Bird Notes label run by saxophonist Bengt "Frippe" Nordström. Ayler plays tenor saxophone and is accompanied by Swedish musicians Torbjörn Hultcrantz (bass) and Sune Spångberg (drums).