Cecil Taylor sketch by Frank Olinsky
Click here to download or read the digital booklet of Cecil Taylor: The Complete, Legendary, Live Return at The Town Hall NYC November 4, 1973
It took me almost 50 years to discover history.
There’s probably no recounted history without skidding through the boring bits. Certainly, my path to stumbling upon Cecil Taylor’s The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert at The Town Hall NYC November 4, 1973 was not particularly eventuful.
Soon after Nick Moy and I had finished recording the Cecil Taylor Unit’s “Return Concert” at Manhattan’s storied Town Hall, his manager asked me to mix the second half of the show. Made up of a solo performance, followed by the full quartet, each segment would fit perfectly on a vinyl LP for what would become Spring of Two Blue J-s, the second –and as it turned out, final– release on Unit Core Records, Cecil’s short lived label. I went to work immediately and the LP came out early in the new year.
A slightly newer Ampex 4-track 1/2″ tape machine than the one with which I recorded Cecil.
Focused on the work at hand, my first ever multi-track mixdown, I didn’t have the time or wherewithal to listen to concert’s first half, or even run a quick 1/4″ rough; it was a continuous quartet performance of two compositions –”Autumn” and “Parade”– that totaled almost 90 minutes. Luckily, at least I hung onto the first set’s tapes (the master four tracks of Spring... disappeared with the manager, never to be seen again), but since I didn’t have ready access to a 1/2″ tape machine I had no idea whether Cecil rejected the set for musical quality or unsuitability-for-vinyl reasons.
The tapes followed me back and forth across the country for decades, teasing me with the possible revelations they might reveal. A few decades later the digital revolution had overtaken us all, and so in 2010 I had the original four tracks transferred. For exactly what reasons, I couldn’t tell you. It just seemed like the right idea at the time. One way or the other I figured at the very least I’d get a chance to listen and find out what was there.
But life took over. My cartoon company was hopping, I started, sold and then started another streaming video company and I didn’t take that chance to check out the set. Along the way, Cecil sadly passed away at 89 years old after a lifetime of fierce determination and stunning artistic achievement.
More time went by and then the pandemic hit and we were all locked up.
The home office I set up held my analog tapes and digital files –including the Cecil sessions I recorded– that burned into my sight line all day, every day. Without commuting or business lunches and the like, there was a lot of extra time to contemplate and find a plan of action that I’d been avoiding for 48 years.
But, first! There’s always something to get in the way.
I was petrified. The last time I’d personally mixed any music was probably in 1980, when the world was completely analog. It would never be said that I’d mastered the art, but I was pretty good, especially with acoustic music. Now, we were in the digital age and I’d steadfastly avoided anything technical since I’d gotten an admonition from the world’s most famous jazz engineer, Rudy Van Gelder, to stick to what I did best and pick an expert for everything else. I’d listened carefully and adhered to the instruction for my entire career since then, but I was stuck inside and the tapes were calling me. What’s a former record producer/engineer to do? Well, I went to YouTube, taught myself the rudiments of digital mixing with the software most easily available and sat down to listen. And maybe more.
Holy history! The music was a revelation, more stunning than I could have imagained. After all the years, all the anxiety, all the waiting. There was no musical issue.
The Cecil Taylor Unit was on fire. The five years away from Cecil’s hometown hadn’t dimmed any of them –Andrew Cyrille, Jimmy Lyons, and new addition Sirone– even a little bit. Just the opposite. The years out of the city spotlight had sharpened all their senses, their talents and their skills, moved Cecil’s conceptions forward by leaps and bounds. The Return Concert was a coming out, the beginning of the next four decades where he would finally become recognized by the world.
Click here to download or read the digital booklet of Cecil Taylor: The Complete, Legendary, Live Return at The Town Hall NYC November 4, 1973
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