Cecil Taylor's 2006 Trio

A short-lived ensemble I was lucky enough to catch

L-R: Pheeroan akLaff, Cecil Taylor (I don’t know who the other 3 people are)

In October 2006, Cecil Taylor briefly led a trio with bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. They only performed three or four concerts, including two shows at the Iridium club in Manhattan (the Times Square location), one of which I attended. My memories of the actual music are vague, but positive. Grimes had returned to the music scene in 2003 after literally disappearing in 1968 — he drove across the country with his bass strapped to the roof of a car, damaging it so badly he had to sell it, and spent the next 35 years working menial jobs and writing poetry until he was discovered alive in 2002 and gifted an instrument by William Parker. I saw him a few times, once leading an ensemble and then as part of this trio; he did some amazing work in his final years, particularly with guitarist Marc Ribot (check the albums Spiritual Unity and Live at the Village Vanguard). His relationship with Taylor went back more than 40 years; he played on the 1961 session that yielded Taylor’s half of the album Into the Hot, which was released under Gil Evans’ name (it’s a long and weird story). He also played on Taylor’s two Blue Note albums, Unit Structures and Conquistador!, both recorded in 1966.

I recently spoke to akLaff about this trio for my upcoming book In the Brewing Luminous: The Life and Music of Cecil Taylor. Only about half our conversation was recorded, unfortunately, but what he said about his relationship with Taylor was interesting, so I’m reproducing it here.

“I got the call because… I think it just came across his mind at the moment. I think Cecil probably — first of all, he does, he always researched what people were doing. He didn’t — he was a hermit in a certain kind of way, but he also would show up at places and just see who’s doing what, who’s playing the newest of music. So he was not by any means self-absorbed. He was always thinking the same way he did when he was 25. Like, you know, what’s going on? And when I say what’s going on, I’m reminded of a statement made by Amiri Baraka in his book, Black Music. Because “what’s going on” was almost an adage that was used by all of them — Cecil, Ornette, you know, Jackie Mac. You know, they wanted, they were really interested in the next, you know, so in that degree, the next thing was not on a trend. It was part of their bohemia, which they wanted to keep vibrant. So he probably thought of me because he — I know he really enjoyed Anthony Davis’s music. I don't remember what Anthony was doing in 2006. I don’t know what I was doing in 2006 that brought me into his focus, really. But there would be times, because we were neighbors, I would just go and knock on his door, see if he’s okay and or if it’s his birthday, go by, drag people over to see him, and force him to be sociable. So most likely, you know, it was an idea that he thought would work well, too, because Henry Grimes was certainly going to be open to doing something and not bringing any kind of...not bringing much of what you might say, subjective musical energy. I think Henry was very, very open-minded about how he was approaching music at that time. And, of course, William Parker was always connected to people and always able to contribute on a high level. So I think, you know, I did a few things with Henry and a couple of things with William. Now, we first worked in 1983. And in ’83, [Parker] called me to do a concert as a quintet. Max Roach’s son Raoul Roach may have recorded that. He was working together with Paul West, the great Paul West had a series at Henry Street Settlement, where he would, you know, have series of concerts. And so that was a quintet concert — it was Carlos Ward with William and Arthur Brooks played the trumpet. So I’d never heard that or saw that. Just kind of vaguely remember Raoul being into video at that time. And that was one, that was just one concert and…you know, we had come across each other in various contexts when we were on the same bill, also. So [Taylor] would have a chance to hear me probably in Europe or in other festivals.

“Like I said, we were also neighbors…I mean, you know, I sent him a postcard from Egypt, and he never stopped talking about it because it was like of the Saqqara Pyramid. And he just had such, you know, he was so well read and always interested in African history, African philosophy. You know, he was just so impressed by that. He mentioned it all the time. And that was 1985, so.

“We had probably two long rehearsals, you know, I don’t think he wanted to rehearse a lot because I think when he would do large projects, he probably spent, you know, a good amount of time with musicians trying to direct and whatnot or asking for some musical director to work with them or something like that. But here, no, he was completely interested in our individuality and our chemistry, which he trusted. So, yeah, we didn’t — we probably had two long rehearsals.”

I wish our entire conversation had been preserved, but the phone call dropped halfway through and when we reconnected, I forgot to press Record again. So that’s on me. But anyway, I thought that might be of interest. And below the paywall, I’ll share an article from the Hartford Courant, author unknown because the byline wasn’t included when it was uploaded to their website (boo!), about another concert by that trio at the Artists Collective in that city.

Thanks for reading, and for your support!