sideshowbob
Champagne fascia aficionado
It's the man's birthday today. Let's have a thread to remind ourselves about his greatness.
When did you first hear him? What did you make of it?
I remember listening to Giant Steps in 1983 or 1984. I was about 19. Into post punk and industrial noise. I didn't understand jazz at all really, although I thought I probably should. I had a Charlie Parker compilation I pretended to like, but I didn't really have a clue. One day I went to Red Rhino in York, where I was a student, and bought two albums: Cecil Taylor's Air Above Mountains, and Trane's Giant Steps. Cecil's record made complete sense to me immediately, Trane a bit less so. It felt worthy somehow, like it was good for you, whereas I could tell Cecil was a gigantic feck-you to tradition, and that instantly appealed to the punk in me.
Fast forward a few years. 1992 I think. I'm living in the centre of London, a short walk from Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus. I wake up with a hangover one Saturday morning. Walk to Tower, as I often did. Something calls me upstairs to the jazz floor, somewhere I'd never been. I buy a Coltrane album. Pretty much at random, since I know almost nothing about jazz apart from Cecil Taylor and have only ever heard Giant Steps by Trane. The album is Impressions.
I play it that afternoon. I play nothing else for a week, I listen to it constantly. The next week I buy Interstellar Space.
Within a month I own almost every Trane album. Within a couple of years jazz has become an obsession. Interstellar Space is still my favourite record of all time.
Edit: The Esteemed Leader, Tony L, has had a copy of Cecil Taylor's Air Above Mountains for sale for months. Someone should buy it, it's one of CT's best solo recordings. I still play the copy I bought in 1983 all the time.
When did you first hear him? What did you make of it?
I remember listening to Giant Steps in 1983 or 1984. I was about 19. Into post punk and industrial noise. I didn't understand jazz at all really, although I thought I probably should. I had a Charlie Parker compilation I pretended to like, but I didn't really have a clue. One day I went to Red Rhino in York, where I was a student, and bought two albums: Cecil Taylor's Air Above Mountains, and Trane's Giant Steps. Cecil's record made complete sense to me immediately, Trane a bit less so. It felt worthy somehow, like it was good for you, whereas I could tell Cecil was a gigantic feck-you to tradition, and that instantly appealed to the punk in me.
Fast forward a few years. 1992 I think. I'm living in the centre of London, a short walk from Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus. I wake up with a hangover one Saturday morning. Walk to Tower, as I often did. Something calls me upstairs to the jazz floor, somewhere I'd never been. I buy a Coltrane album. Pretty much at random, since I know almost nothing about jazz apart from Cecil Taylor and have only ever heard Giant Steps by Trane. The album is Impressions.
I play it that afternoon. I play nothing else for a week, I listen to it constantly. The next week I buy Interstellar Space.
Within a month I own almost every Trane album. Within a couple of years jazz has become an obsession. Interstellar Space is still my favourite record of all time.
Edit: The Esteemed Leader, Tony L, has had a copy of Cecil Taylor's Air Above Mountains for sale for months. Someone should buy it, it's one of CT's best solo recordings. I still play the copy I bought in 1983 all the time.