Spring of Two Blue J's

Live album by Cecil Taylor

Released

1974

Recorded

November 4, 1973

Genre

Free jazz

Length

37:48

Label

Unit Core

Producer

Bonitza Melodies (Fred Seibert)

Cecil Taylor chronology

Solo
(1973)

Spring of Two Blue J's
(1973)

Silent Tongues
(1974)

Jazz View cover

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

Spring of Two Blue J's is a live album by Cecil Taylor recorded at The Town Hall in New York City in November 1973 and originally released on Taylor's Unit Core label and rereleased on the Jazz View label. The LP features one side-long solo performance by Taylor and one side-long quartet performance with Jimmy Lyons, Sirone, and Andrew Cyrille.

The Allmusic review by Stephen Cook states "The extended solo piece finds Taylor subtly moving from faint, romantic chords into knotty and mercurial ruminations, then ending the piece with tumultuous runs over the entire keyboard. With its keen call-and-response motives, endlessly fertile improvisation, and intuitive shifts in dynamics, this piano exploration qualifies as one of Taylor's best and most accessible. The ensemble version is predictably more intense. While Cyrille compliments and provokes Taylor with his supple and energetic work behind the kit, Lyons alternates between comically detached commentary and frenetic wailing on the alto. Sirone gets lost in the mix, but is heard to great effect on a solo spot at the end of the piece".

This concert at The Town Hall was billed as Cecil Taylor's "return" to New York City after a period teaching in the Midwest United States. The concert program notes said:

"This concert marks the return of Cecil Taylor to New York City, his birthplace, to embark upon projects conceived during the past three and one-half year while he held the position of artist and composer in residence at the University of Wisconsin and Antioch College.

"The premiere of the first of these projects will take place at Avery Fisher (Philharmonic) Hall, January 1, 1973. By what can only be termed an ambitious undertaking, it will include the Unit Core, dance, voice, special effects, an ensemble of musicians who have participated in the Cecil Taylor Unit program at the institutions mentioned. Mr. Taylor will be presenting various parts of this project in a series of special programs to take place at the Spring Natural Foods restaurant, 149 Spring Street, in Soho."

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Wikipedia