Cecil Taylor/Pauline Oliveros DVD

[CraigP]

Cecil Taylor - Piano, Poetry
Pauline Oliveros - Accordian

“I am in the glories of winnowing,” Cecil Taylor states while reading his poem “Laryngeals, laryngeals…” as part of the 2008 opening festivities of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The performances surrounding the event are captured in a new DVD, Cecil Taylor/Pauline Oliveros Solo-Duo-Poetry.

And his solo and duo performances as part of that event provide aural evidence of such a winnowing process, although it is not a wholesale change in his approach. Rather, the listener gets a strong sense of the architecture of his improvisations, and the contrast between light and dark sections. There’s space to this music, the feeling of every note being well-considered, of course in the blink of an eye, given that we’re talking about Cecil Taylor.

The DVD consists of a 32 minute solo Taylor performance, a 16 minute solo Pauline Oliveros performance, a 22 minute duo performance, a 75 minute (!) poetry reading and 20 or so minutes of excerpts of other performances from the opening.

Considering poetry, let’s be clear: Taylor’s hands are poetry. The solo performance is concise, disciplined, exhilarating to watch. This was my first exposure to Oliveros’ work, and it wasn’t to my taste, although I’d like to hear from a fan, as she's obviously well-regarded. And she came through in the duo performance with Taylor; there’s a wonderful interplay between the two, deep listening going on throughout. And while I’m sure the fact that I’m on pain medication had something to do with this, the final section is so tender, so lyrical even, and so filled with mutual respect that it brought tears to my eyes. They hug at the conclusion, capping off a wonderful performance.

If you’re a fan of either artist this is a no-brainer.

Subcutaneous
Subcutaneous arising
Origins
The root of the syntax
Of the music
Arising rippling following
The code the ancients
Demanding our genuflection
They smile they approve
The ceremony is their praise
The root of the music
Uncovered flowing
Tapping into the source
Language myth science astronomy
Currents uncovered existing
Unknowable

[Captain Hate]

CT is very aware of his stature and has never shrunk from mixing it up with people that interest him. I'm sure this is much better than the Pablo duet with Mary Lou Williams and the disaster with Ornette which never had a chance.

[CraigP]

Oh yeah, this is not at all like the Mary Lou Williams trainwreck. What was the Ornette thing?

[Captain Hate]

There was an interview with Lisle Ellis in Cadence a few years ago where he said: Cecil related what took place the one and only time he and Ornette set out to do some music together. He had been invited to perform in the context of Ornette's Prime Time. CT said he was looking forward to the opportunity to "...confound that rhythm section..." It never happened. As Cecil tells it, they were rehearsing, just the two of them, and Ornette said to Cecil, "More thirds." Cecil said, "Ok, no problem." A few minutes later Ornette said to Cecil, "Too busy in the left hand." Cecil told me, "Well, that was it...it was over."

[CraigP]

That story makes Ornette sound like kind of a jerk.

[Captain Hate]

In fairness to Ornette, it's only one side of the story. The point I was trying to make was that CT has generally been very wide open to playing with a wide range of musicians.

[walto]

His date with Mat Maneri came out really nice, I thought.

[CraigP]

His date with Mat Maneri came out really nice, I thought.

I need to pull that out again.