The Depths · All albums

Unit Structures

Cecil Taylor · 1966

• Scores: Noise 4, Unease 4, Complexity 5 (each 1 to 5)
• Genre: Jazz, Free jazz
• Mood: dense, tumultuous, cerebral
• Sound: percussive piano clusters, two basses, atonal improvisation, written structures, sextet

Unit Structures is a septet record that Cecil Taylor recorded on 19 May 1966 at Van Gelder Studio, with two double bassists, Henry Grimes and Alan Silva, alongside Andrew Cyrille on drums. Eddie Gale's trumpet, Jimmy Lyons' alto saxophone and Ken McIntyre's alto saxophone, oboe and bass clarinet join Taylor's piano and bells. All the music is by Taylor, and it is atonal free jazz in which the improvisation extends to building the structures themselves, as the title suggests. Taylor wrote the liner essay, "Sound Structure of Subculture Becoming Major Breath/Naked Fire Gesture", to go with it.

Track list

1. Steps (10:20)
2. Enter, Evening (11:06)
3. Unit Structure/As of a Now/Section (17:47)
4. Tales (8 Whisps) (7:14)