{"id":2269691,"date":"2026-02-06T14:09:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2269691"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:09:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:09:39","slug":"cecil-taylor-new-unit-words-and-music-the-last-bandstand-2016-2026-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/cecil-taylor-new-unit-words-and-music-the-last-bandstand-2016-2026-release\/","title":{"rendered":"Cecil Taylor New Unit &#8211; &#8216;Words and Music &#8211; the last bandstand&#8217; (2016, 2026 release)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><!--Ad Injection mfunc mode ad include code--><!--mfunc include_once('\/home1\/sometjm0\/public_html\/wp-content\/plugins\/ad-injection\/adshow.php') --><!--\/mfunc--><\/p>\n<p><i>feature photo: Paula Court<\/i><br \/><cemter><iframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=3566764328\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/transparent=true\/\" seamless=\"\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sluchaj.bandcamp.com\/album\/words-and-music-the-last-bandstand\">Words and Music the last bandstand by Cecil Taylor New Unit feat. Okkyung Lee, Tony Oxley, Harri Sjostrom, Jackson Krall<\/a><\/iframe><\/cemter><\/p>\n<p>It was 2016 and the eighty-seven year old free jazz icon Cecil Taylor hadn\u2019t retired but by this time his performances were infrequent and selective; in the prior five years he averaged about one a year. However, he now seemed eager to pick up the pace as he put together a new ensemble comprising of Okkung Lee (cello), Harri Sjostrom (soprano saxophone, sopranino) and Jackson Krall (drums). Tony Oxley, a longtime cohort of Taylor\u2019s, is the final member and curiously, the master drummer is handling electronics instead. Taylor even christened this band the \u201cCecil Taylor New Unit,\u201d a significant gesture as none of his bands were formally billed as a \u2018Unit\u2019 (i.e., Cecil Taylor Unit) since apparently the early 80s.<\/p>\n<p>And so this collection of musicians played at the Whitney Museum in New York on April 23, 2016 with Taylor \u2014 who by many accounts \u2014 intending this to be the start of more concerts with his latest ensemble. However, it was not to be. Taylor\u2019s failing health and possibly other factors made any further performances impossible and Taylor passed away just less than two years later. <\/p>\n<p>This final recital was recorded, but that recording hadn\u2019t been publicly available until now. <i>Words and Music \u2013 the last bandstand<\/i> (<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sluchaj.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fundacja S?uchaj<\/a>) is now among us thanks to Jay Sanders, who produced this concert and had this keepsake in his archives. <\/p>\n<p>Even the best musicians can lose their way at an advanced age, playing somewhat listless and falling back heavily on their standard cliches, but Taylor does none of that here. From the start, he plays with purpose, and his band \u2014 even for this first and only time together \u2014 can sense where\u2019s he\u2019s headed. That in turn is why they are able to complement him so well.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor, as he\u2019d done so many times before, begins with a pretty progression that he composed spontaneously (of course) and shifts in a natural manner to something more abrasive and less tonal. That true gift still intact at this point is how he makes it all acceptable as part of the same exploit, the same thought process.<\/p>\n<p>While the old legend still played with the same passion and fire, the surrounding cast added new elements to his sound. Lee in particular stands out for deftly maneuvering her cello around the piano and making a compatible companion out of it. Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m on soprano sax offers a higher pitched tonal palette than, say, Jimmy Lyons could do on alto, and the Finnish reedist who is a veteran of the European free jazz scene strays further away from the jazz tradition than Lyons did. <\/p>\n<p>About midway through the eighty-minute performance, Taylor executes the \u201cwords\u201d part of the show, first as a soliloquy but the supporting players sneak their way into becoming part of the poetry recital with accompanying music derived instinctively. <\/p>\n<p>Cecil Taylor set out to write the next chapter in his long, distinguished career and it turned out to be an epilogue. But the same drive that he possessed in the mid 1950s to lead jazz to alternative angles remained with him to his final performance. We long knew that Taylor was an intensely creative artist, and it\u2019s remarkable to behold this intensity that never waned even at the end of a sixty-plus year career.<\/p>\n<p><i>Words and Music \u2013 the last bandstand<\/i> is available now, through <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sluchaj.bandcamp.com\/album\/words-and-music-the-last-bandstand\" target=\"_blank\">Bandcamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!--Ad Injection mfunc mode ad code--><!--mfunc adshow_display_ad_file_v2(array('ad_bottom_1.txt'), array(100), array('align' => 'center', 'clear' => '', 'margin_top' => '', 'margin_bottom' => '', 'padding_top' => '0', 'padding_bottom' => '0'), array(), array()) --><\/p>\n<p><!--\/mfunc--><\/p>\n<div class=\"abh_box abh_box_down abh_box_fancy\">\n<div class=\"abh_tab_content\">\n<section class=\"vcard author abh_about_tab abh_tab\" itemscope=\"\" itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Person\" style=\"display:block\">\n<div class=\"abh_image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/author\/s-victor-aaron\/\" class=\"url\" title=\"S. Victor Aaron\"> <\/a> <\/div>\n<div class=\"abh_text\">\n<div class=\"description note abh_description\" itemprop=\"description\" style=\"font-size:12px !important;\">A drive-by observer of the jazz scene S. Victor Aaron was a long-time SQL demon for a Fortune 100 company by day before advancing to popcorn factory laborer. His musings are strewn across the interwebs on jazz.com, AllAboutJazz.com, a football discussion board and some inchoate Amazon customer reviews of records from the late 1990s under a pseudonym that will never be revealed. Follow him on Twitter: @SVictorAaron. Contact Something Else! at <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection\" class=\"__cf_email__\" data-cfemail=\"027067746b677571607b716d6f67766a6b6c65676e716742656f636b6e2c616d6f\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"abh_posts_tab abh_tab\">\n<div class=\"abh_image\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/author\/s-victor-aaron\/\" class=\"url\" title=\"S. Victor Aaron\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/gravatar\/s.-victor-aaron.jpg\" class=\"photo\" width=\"250\" alt=\"S. Victor Aaron\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"abh_text\">\n<div class=\"abh_name\">Latest posts by S. Victor Aaron <span class=\"abh_allposts\">(<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/author\/s-victor-aaron\/\">see all<\/a>)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tag-list\"><strong>Tags:<\/strong> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/2010s\/\" rel=\"tag\">2010s<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/cecil-taylor\/\" rel=\"tag\">Cecil Taylor<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/free-improvisation\/\" rel=\"tag\">free improvisation<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/free-jazz\/\" rel=\"tag\">Free Jazz<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/harri-sjostrom\/\" rel=\"tag\">Harri Sj\u00f6str\u00f6m<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/jackson-krall\/\" rel=\"tag\">Jackson Krall<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/jazz\/\" rel=\"tag\">Jazz<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/new-release\/\" rel=\"tag\">new release<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/okkyung-lee\/\" rel=\"tag\">Okkyung Lee<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/s-victor-aaron\/\" rel=\"tag\">S. Victor Aaron<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/tony-oxley\/\" rel=\"tag\">Tony Oxley<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/somethingelsereviews.com\/tag\/whack-jazz\/\" rel=\"tag\">Whack Jazz<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\n\t\t\t  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n\t\t\t  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n\t\t\t  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n\t\t\t  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.7\";\n\t\t\t  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n\t\t\t}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source somethingelsereviews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>feature photo: Paula CourtWords and Music the last bandstand by Cecil Taylor New Unit feat. Okkyung Lee, Tony Oxley, Harri Sjostrom, Jackson Krall It was 2016 and the eighty-seven year old free jazz icon Cecil Taylor hadn\u2019t retired but by this time his performances were infrequent and selective; in the prior five years he averaged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2269692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[439457,439458,439459,439460,439461,439462,24982,345809,439463,439464,439465,439466],"class_list":["post-2269691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-2010s","tag-cecil-taylor","tag-free-improvisation","tag-free-jazz","tag-harri-sjostrom","tag-jackson-krall","tag-jazz","tag-new-release","tag-okkyung-lee","tag-s-victor-aaron","tag-tony-oxley","tag-whack-jazz"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Cecil-Taylor-New-Unit-Words-and-Music-the.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2269691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2269693,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269691\/revisions\/2269693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2269692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2269691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2269691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2269691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}