Cecil Taylor Unit
“Return Concert” (excerpted as “Spring of Two Blue-J’s”)
Town Hall, New York City
November 4, 1973
(Clickable MP3s in large fonts below)
In the early 70s, pianist/composer Cecil Taylor had teaching at the University of Wisconsin and Antioch College for several years, absent from New York performing during those tumultuous years for jazz. He returned with a vengeance in 1973, commuting from Ohio, and by the end of the year I got involved recording some of his live performances. The most anticipated was the Town Hall “Return Concert” with his quartet (stalwarts Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille, with the addition of theRevolutionary Ensemble’s Sirone).
These tapes have been sitting in my library for nearly 40 years without much of a second look, no less listen. I’ve finally converted the stereo two tracks to digital files (four tracks and digital mixing currently beyond my pay grade). There are outtakes and alternative mixes, and they’ll all be posted as I can get to listening and sorting.
All the files will be coming directly from the tape masters, the only ones anywhere in the world taken directly from the two-track stereo tape, just as it was mixed my me, with assistance from my great friend Alan Goodman and Jeff Ader. (The file on the original SOTBJ post is an MP3 transfer from an original vinyl pressing.) I haven’t check in with either of the guys yet, and honestly, I don’t even remember where these mixes were made. But as I close in on some details they’ll be updated here.
Update: OK, a bit of Googling has jogged my memory. The first actual recording engineer I knew was an entrepreneurial high school buddy, Bob Blank, who was opening a full service studio in New York at 20th Street and Sixth Avenue. He was most known for his work with ZE Records during the disco and no wave boom, but as he was starting out he was kind enough to loan me his rooms to mix Cecil’s “Return Concert” four tracks.
At the time I was nervous about my engineering abilities, especially applied to a world class artist like Cecil Taylor. And having never mixed a four track before this session, I was anxious about the results. So, before we finalized the mastering I brought the tapes to be remixed again with Tony May at Generation Sound. Tony had a lot of jazz cred at the time for his New York work with ECM Records, but he’d had an incredible career before that at A&R Recording with artists that varied from Van Morrison to Pharaoh Sanders.
Side 1, Part 1, Spring of Two Blue-J’s
Update, September 27, 2010: This track is the easiest to post. It’s the first “mix” of the 16 minute solo side (Side 1) of “Spring of Two Blue-J’s.” Not much information to add here since it’s a solo recording: no artificial echo added, just the direct sound of the piano microphones, and ambient overtones from the other instruments’ mikes.
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Copyrights and masters owned by their respective owners. I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. If any of them are re-released, or the copyright owners object, I’ll delete the posts.
