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Unit Structures
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0077778423720
Label: Blue Note Records
Manufacturer: Blue Note Records
MPN: 84237
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Blue Note Records
Release Date: October 25, 1990
Studio: Blue Note Records
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Editorial Review:
Uncompromising and endlessly controversial, Cecil Taylor's percussive, intellectual approach to jazz composition, improvisation and piano remain largely outside the mainstream after more than 40 years. A classically trained pianist prior to discovering the music of Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Horace Silver, Taylor soon developed a percussive, clustered, impressionistic style that, while taking Monk as a harmonic starting point, charts a course straight for the stratosphere. Indeed, Taylor frequently seems to have dispensed with both melody and form, yet he's brilliant at conveying a broad complex of emotions, from introspection to tenderness to rage.
Unit Structures, through its use of two bassists (Henry Grimes and Alan Silva) and the two-reed front of Ken McIntyre and Taylor-mainstay Jimmy Lyons, suggests a "double band." Yet such structures become almost meaningless in Taylor's world: it is all about energy and exploration. Punctuated by percussive bursts and melodic eruptions, Unit Structures is, despite its title, impressionistic and whimsical, although devoid of all standard structures and romance. Instead, Taylor pushes his band to explore the limits of improvisation where nothing--neither form, nor melody, nor structure--is a given. Still challenging listening after nearly four decades. --Fred Goodman
Japanese 20Bit Re-Issue.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - unit structures indeed !
There should be no misunderstanding - Cecil Taylor meant it when he called this album "Unit Structures". That these structures are experimental in nature does not make them less "structured". By respecting his audience, Taylor is not content with repeating old structures (12, 16, 32 bars). He experiments with different elements of structure - the structure of instrumentation, of the melodic development, of the dynamics. You will notice how on each piece the instrumental structure changes - piano ... Read More
Rating: - Good summation of the free Jazz spirit through piano
Although nothing here is as shocking as Albert Ayler's forays into structure/less jazz improvisation--nor as revolutionary as Ornette Coleman's hard-charging free-bop assault; Cecil Taylor introduces a comparatively difficult to manipulate instrument to free jazz; the piano. His fingers sound like they are that of a millipede on some of these tracks because I honestly cannot distinguish notes at times. Instead everything is clustered in spasmic leaps. The great part about this seeming indulgence, ... Read More
Rating:  - Very poor indeed.
What a racket. Give this a miss. Like being dragged through a hedge backwards.
Rating: - the jokes on you
is this guy putting us on? all his albums sound the same and the reviews do as well-if your not hip enough or intellectual enough than you can't understand this deep moving experience. stick to music you enjoy, not what your supposed to "understand"-this music is for the few people recording it, not those who want music than can experience and feel something from.
Rating: - Unit Structures
Free jazz isn't noise...it's awesome, so go buy some Cecil Taylor records...right now...your life depends on it.
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