This post is by Dan
Recorded June 30, 1988
In June and July 1988, Cecil Taylor spent several weeks in Berlin giving a series of concerts. He performed solo and with various groups of musicians. The performances were recorded by FMP and released as individual CDs and as an 11-CD box set. The Hearth and Erzulie Maketh Scent are the only two of these performances that I have heard. Both are among my favorites of the decade.
On The Hearth, Taylor teams with Evan Parker and Tristan Honsinger, two of Europe's finest improvisors. The music illustrates both the basic challenge of free improvisation - placing three unrehearsed voices together to see what happens - and the triumph when the combination generates music such as this.
The concert begins with Parker and Honsinger playing a duet for about eight minutes while Taylor sings one of his "indecipherable vocal offerings," a phrase used in Alex von Schlippenbach's booklet notes. When Taylor joins on piano, he engages in a series of remarkable give-and-take exchanges between himself and the other two. von Schlippenbach explains how the moments of three-way exchanges are more difficult but more magical when "the pitches and accent interference patterns melt into one." That description is about as insightful as I've read in my forays into free improvisation.
von Schlippenbach himself plays many roles in free music, notably his own trio consisting of Parker and drummer Paul Lovens. He also directs the Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, who's eponymous ECM album will be reviewed in a later post. Suffice it to say that his comments on The Hearth are authoritative and well worth reading.
Beyond any analysis of the trio's interaction, The Hearth has a strong emotional impact throughout the entire hour of performance, which ends with another of Taylor's vocal offerings. As with Erzulie Maketh Scent, this is not every day listening. But it's great to return to these recordings and engage the magic that freely improvised music can provide.
HEARTH
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HEARTH
Somehow, that observation helps me to understand Taylor's The Hearth, whether the title was chosen for that reason or not.
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