Historic Concerts

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Historic Concerts
Historic Concerts.jpg
Live album by
Cecil Taylor & Max Roach
Released1984
RecordedDecember 15, 1979
VenueMcMillin Theatre, Columbia University, New York City
GenreFree jazz
Length106:38
LabelSoul Note
Cecil Taylor chronology
One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye
(1978) 		Historic Concerts
(1984) 		It is in the Brewing Luminous
(1980)
Max Roach chronology
Pictures in a Frame
(1979) 		Historic Concerts
(1979) 		Chattahoochee Red
(1980)

Historic Concerts is a live album by Cecil Taylor and Max Roach recorded at the McMillin Theatre, Columbia University, NYC on December 15, 1979 and released on the Soul Note label in 1984. Despite the inaccurate plural title, the entire album is just one single show. The album features solo and duet performances by Taylor and Roach and the later CD reissue adds interviews recorded after the concert.

Years later, Taylor reflected: "It was a phenomenon, playing with Mr Roach in front of all those people. Ten thousand of them listening to two of us. It was as if two angry prophets had finally managed to get together a crowd. We maybe wondered for a moment whether it would be more eloquent to stay quiet!"[1]

On June 4, 2000, Taylor and Roach reunited at Columbia for a performance during the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival.[2]

Reception[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic4.5/5 stars[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide4/5 stars[4]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings4/4 stars[5]

In a review of the concert, Robert Palmer wrote: "One anticipated the evening with special interest because Mr. Roach, the most creative and adventurous drummer to emerge from the first generation of modern jazz in the 1940's, would be working with the premier jazz pianist of the 60's, and because Mr. Taylor has often been exceptionally demanding in his encounters with other artists... Mr. Roach demonstrated once more that he is the most musical of all drummers, and Mr. Taylor proved himself a master of space, color, and rhythmic nuance. And the two musicians listened and worked together."[6]

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states: "The passionate music is quite atonal but coherent, with Taylor displaying an impressive amount of energy and the two masters (who had not rehearsed or ever played together before) communicating pretty well".[3]

The authors of the Penguin Jazz Guide wrote: "the summit with Taylor, recorded at the McMillin Theater at Columbia University, is still exhilarating. Both men warm up in their respective corners, before launching into a huge, 40-minute fantasy that sees neither surrendering a whit of individuality. As was noted at the time, it was the perfect occasion to test the cliché about Roach the melodic percussionist and Taylor the percussive pianist and, like all successful sound-bites, it proves to be both helpful and misleading. For much of the opening duet, Roach fulfils a conventional drummer's role, sustaining a time-feel, accelerating and arresting the pace of development, filling and embellishing; it is Taylor who creates the grandly insane melodies that spring away for whole minutes at a time... a valuable historical document."[1]

Track listing[]

All compositions by Cecil Taylor & Max Roach.
  1. "Presentation" - 1:06
  2. "Drums Solo" - 5:02
  3. "Piano Solo" - 5:04
  4. "Duets, Part 1" - 40:04
  5. "Duets, Part 2" - 38:32
  6. "Interviews, Part 1" - 9:36
  7. "Interviews, Part 2" - 7:14
  • Recorded at the McMillin Theatre, Columbia University, NYC on December 15, 1979

Personnel[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Morton, Brian; Cook, Richard (2010). The Penguin Jazz Guide. Penguin Books.
  2. ^ Trimel, Suzanne (May 17, 2000). "Max Roach and Cecil Taylor to Perform on Low Plaza". Columbia.edu. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Yanow, Scott. "Max Roach / Cecil Taylor: Historic Concerts (McMillin Theatre, Columbia U., NY, December 15, 1979)". AllMusic. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
  4. ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 169. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  5. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1221. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  6. ^ Palmer, Robert (December 17, 1979). "Jazz: The Taylor‐Roach Duo Concert". The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2021.
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