The 70th Annual Downbeat Critics Poll is out now, highlighting several albums and artists repped from May 2021-April 2022 at Lydia Liebman Promotions. See the full list below! Rising Star Large Ensemble 1. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band Rising Star Soprano Sax 1. Roxy Coss Jazz Artist of the Year 17. Dave Liebman Jazz Album … Read More
New York City Jazz Record, March 2022 Review by Anna Steegmann – Adi Meyerson – I Want To Sing My Heart Out In Praise of Life – Page 17 Review by Mark Keresman – Roxy Coss – Disparate Parts – Page 18 Review by Ken Dryden – Deanna Witkowski – Force of Nature – Page … Read More
by Lee Rice Epstein, The Free Jazz Collective “Taylor is a fascinating composer, and listening to sets of performances within the same year really help listeners focus on how the compositions were shifting and changing, where lines are played within clusters or through solo runs. Circulation of dubiously sourced bootlegs has filled many gaps in … Read More
by Lance Liddle, Bebop Spoken Here “The album’s full title – The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert at The Town Hall NYC November 4, 1973 – marks the release of all the material recorded at the New York Town Hall concert almost fifty years ago. In the pre-digital age it wasn’t viable to market a … Read More
by Jeff Simon, Buffalo News “It is a perfect demonstration of the astonishment of Taylor’s music at its best. Whirlwinds of thundering tone clusters and volcanic eruptions of splatter piano suddenly wane into reflection or impassioned eloquence by Taylor’s musical partner back then, alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons.” Read the review here.
by Taylor Ho Bynum, The Baffler “..Taylor makes you question standard notions of time—not just the traditionally defined beats and tempos he had moved past by this recording, but the expected length of a concert.” Read the review here.
by Phil Freeman, Stereogum “The concert was recorded — very well — by an engineer named Fred Seibert..it’s amazing stuff.” Read ‘The Month in Jazz – February 2022’ article here.
by John Fordham, The Guardian “Cecil Taylor, the technically awesome, stylistically and temperamentally uncategorisable African American piano virtuoso, died in 2018. Four years later, much of a previously lost November 1973 concert at New York City’s town hall (originally sidelined because one track runs to 88 minutes) has emerged..” Read the full article here.
by Michael J. West, JazzTimes “..Spring of Two Blue-J’s, one of the great concert triumphs of free-jazz pianist Cecil Taylor’s career, is just the shorter second set from a two-set night? Perhaps it’s not the world-reshaping news that the recent spate of new Coltrane releases has been, but it’s big, and the newly released full … Read More
by Alan Scherstuhl, The New York Times “Recorded at the Town Hall in New York on Nov. 4, 1973, the music gushes as if it were an uncapped fireplug. Previously unreleased, the relentless 88-minute track ‘Autumn/Parade’ catches the inexhaustible Cecil Taylor Unit in the grip of one revelation after another, playing free jazz, a style … Read More
