Cecil Taylor - Respiration: Live in Warsaw ‘68

The Free Jazz Collective 0

By Gary Chapin

Respiration adds to the Cecil Taylor oeuvre a nearly perfect 43 minutes of Taylor’s solo power recorded at a beautiful level of quality. It comes from early-ish in his career—it’s always surprising to me, even though I know the history very well, how early Taylor was going this far away from the rails—when he had only just cemented his mature vision ( Conquistador! and Unit Structures were 1966). It feels as joyfully playful for him as it does for him as it does for us.

It’s hard to tell sometimes, when I listen to new (to me) Taylor, what qualities the recording brings and what frame I bring. What once (20 years ago) seemed wonderfully outrageous to me now feels like excellent storytelling. As I get older, Cecil Taylor gets better and better. Can that be right? Of course it can.