Cecil Taylor, Student Studies

Re-released from the 1966 double Paris concert album, and recorded 6 months after the classic Unit Structures and in the month following Conquistador, you are guaranteed a typically amazing performance from Cecil Taylor (Piano), Jimmy Lyons (Alto Sax), Andrew Cyrille (Drums) and Alan Silva (Bass). Yet, although the playing is incredible, intense and superhuman, this recording is in someways atypical. Written sections construct a base for the usually chaotic improvisational space and even tend towards more recognisable jazz forms without compromising the holistic Taylor vision. "I'm not interested in separations", he once said. Even in the absence of his sometimes interim poetry readings, Student Studies is one of Taylor's most accessible offerings, true to his early influences (Ellington, Monk), but also true to his spirit. Fantastic playing by all, but it is the ensemble effect and interplay that is most striking, although individual moments of brilliance from particularly Taylor and Silva are unmissable. Simply, poetry in motion.