Cecil Taylor

USA

Born: 15 March 1929

Years Active: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 2000

Genres: Jazz, Avant-Garde

Styles: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation, Improvised Music, Avant-Garde Jazz, Modern Creative, Progressive Jazz, Big Band/Swing

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Soon after he first emerged in the mid-'50s, pianist Cecil Taylor was the most advanced improviser in jazz; five decades later he is still the most radical. Although in his early days he used some standards as vehicles for improvisation, since the early '60s Taylor has stuck exclusively to originals. To simplify describing his style, one could say that Taylor's intense atonal percussive approach involves playing the piano as if it were a set of drums. He generally emphasizes dense clusters of sound played with remarkable technique and endurance...

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