Cecil Taylor - The Eighth (1989)

“Taylor's art confronts nature so organically because it embraces the same attitudes, makes the same demands. Rejecting frivolous entertainment, it is ritual--a rite of creation that accepts paradox as it attempts to transcend it" ~ Art Lange



Pianist, composer, and educator. Leader of jazz group, 1953--; released debut LP, Jazz Advance, 1956; performed at Five Spot Cafe, New York City, 1956; led onstage band in play The Connection, 1960; toured Europe, 1962; organized Jazz Composers Guild, 1964; recorded with Jazz Composers orchestra, 1968; played for Maeght Foundation, France, 1969, and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 1972; performed in ensembles and as a solo artist at various jazz festivals, including Newport, 1957 and 1972, Great South Bay, 1958, Montreux, 1974, and Kool Jazz, 1984; two-piano performance with Mary Lou Williams, Carnegie Hall, 1977; performed with ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov; composed short ballet Tetra Stomp: Eatin' Rain in Space, 1979; performed for President Jimmy Carter at the White House, 1979 (one source says 1978). Instructor in music, University of Wisconsin, 1970-71; Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH, 1972-74; and Glassboro State College, NJ. [more info here]

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Cecil Taylor - Boesendorfer piano
Jimmy Lyons - alto saxophone
William Parker - double bass
Rashid Bakr - drums

1. Calling it The 8th (57:40)
2. Calling it The 9th (10:51)

Recorded live November 8th, 1981 at Freiburger Jazztage Freiburg, Germany;

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Other Dimensions in Music - Now! (1998)

"Titular infelicities notwithstanding, these worthies make delicious, big-boned music. Now! But to couch its essence to prose. First off, anything involving the bassist William Parker is going to sound unusual. Parker’s an original. Happily, his partners are in all respects peers. As an ensemble (rather, say, than upstaging egoists), they make music immersed in jazz’s easy phraseology, but in terms of enormous originality, with deft, virtuosic interaction as chief among delights. The annotator calls ODIM a collective. The term is apt. These are mature, imaginative, top-shelf players who’ve worked together for a great many years. As intense as the music sounds, its gist is lovingly lyrical. If your system does a good job with the low end, you may at first wonder why the engineer, Jim Anderson, goosed up the bass. Few recordings exercise my woofers as visibly as this. The poor things looked ready to pop from their moorings. Hearing this group in the flesh tells me that all Anderson did was make a true-to-life recording. These studio sessions capture an afternoon’s essence. Between Rashid Bakr’s low drums and Parker’s pungent bass, earthquake becomes the order of the day. Further, the louder you play the disc, the better. It won’t sound unlifelike". - Mike Silverton

"OTHER DIMENSIONS IN MUSIC is a collective creative improvising quartet of epic proportions. 'Now!' was their first new album in 9 years; only their second in 15 years of togetherness. This is soul improv at its most magical; I kid you not. A stone classic this album; for the ages. Soul-sonics of deep compassion and receptivity to the world which surrounds. When the time comes that a majority of Americans listens to ODIM once a week, then we'll all be happier for the wisdom imparted from within". - SJ

1. For The Glass Tear - After Evening's Orange
2. Tears For The Boy Wonder (For Winston Marsalis) [sic]
3. Blue Expanded
4. Whispers & Cries Of Change
5. Dawn
6. Steve's Festive Visions Revisited

Roy Campbell Jr. - trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet
Rashid Bakr - drums
Daniel Carter - alto sax, tenor sax, flute, trumpet
William Parker - bass


Produced by Steven Joerg and ODIM
Recorded and mixed by Jim Anderson at Sound On Sound Studio, NYC on March 19, 1997

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