Mary Lou Williams & Cecil Taylor?

[RDK]

Saw this CD today in the bins and did a double take. Didn't pick it up since it seemed so odd and I couldn't listen to it first, but the first thing I did was check out the review on AMG. Interesting to say the least...

This encounter is a disaster. Mary Lou Williams, who always prided herself on being open-minded, arranged to perform a duo piano concert with the avant-garde master Cecil Taylor. She wanted them to go through her usual history-of-jazz program but neglected to gain Taylor's consent and, since he never compromises his atonal music, the lack of communication between the two players is laughable. While Williams tries to demonstrate blues, ragtime, stride and swing, Taylor plays in his usual dense and dissonant style on top of her. The result is a complete mess that is almost impossible to listen to.

Anybody have this one? And what are your thoughts? Sounds like it might be interesting to hear... once.

[mailman]

I attended that concert and can confirm that it was a disaster. At the end Mary Lou played without Taylor to the delight of the audeince. The rest of the evening was a shipwreck.

[Chuck Nessa]

I think it's a wonderful disaster. Would not be without it.

[paul secor]

I think it's a wonderful disaster. Would not be without it.

A fine description - I agree completely.

I remember reading an interview with Cecil Taylor where he said that he was annoyed that Mary Lou brought her rhythm section in at the last minute. He felt that if she wanted to do that, she could have asked Andrew Cyrille, who had played with both her and Cecil, to play at the concert.

To be fair, I would imagine that Mary Lou Williams might have had a different view.

Edited November 17, 2004 by paul secor

[JSngry]

Yeah, I think I've heard that both principals (and their entourages) were totally pissed by the end of the night.

Which makes the title, EMBRACED, pretty damn funny.

[Brad]

I've never heard of this until now but it does sound like a recipe for disaster, everybody heading off in the completely opposite direction. Must have been something else for those who were there.

[JSngry]

I've always wondered if Mary Lou's somewhat "free" piece "A Fungus Among Us" (form BLACK CHRIST OF THE ANDES) wasn't, in both title and execution, a dig at Cecil.

[Larry Kart]

A listener who is well-disposed toward Taylor's music (and a serious student of it) and was at the concert made this statement on another board this year when I asked whether others thought the concert was a disaster (my inital reaction was akin to Chuck's):

"By the way -- please let me know whether...you hear a tape delay on Taylor's piano, and his piano only, or whether he was abnormally interested in playing every note twice that day. I honestly think that a technical glitch keeps us from hearing the performance properly."

I listened again and, embarrassingly, can't be sure one way or another, though there are moments when I think he may be right.