When Cecil Taylors Free Jazz Was at Its Peak

By 1969, New York-born pianist and composer Cecil Taylor was already a major figure in the free jazz world. His energetic, percussive approach to his instrument, combined with complex improvisational technique, led music writer Val Wilmer to refer to his piano playing as “88 tuned drums”. Albums like Looking Ahead! (1959), Unit Structures (1966) and Conquistador! (1968) are landmarks of modern, atonal jazz. By 1969, he was touring Europe with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Miles Davis, a tour that formed the basis of a stunning new posthumous release, Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts.

Fragments sees Taylor joined by members of the Cecil Taylor Unit: alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons and drummer Andrew Cyrille, bolstered by tenor saxophonist and flautist Sam Rivers, who was only in the band during 1969, as they performed extensively throughout Europe. For most of that summer, the quartet were in residence at the Fondation Maeght, a private art institution on the French Riviera (a concert from that period was recorded and released as a triple LP, Nuits De La Fondation Maeght; the US version was called The Great Concert of Cecil Taylor).

Following this residency, Taylor and his band were invited to join the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Miles Davis for a 15-date European tour in October and November. In addition to dates in Milan, Rome, Vienna, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Berlin, Rotterdam, they performed two sets at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on 3rd November, which were recorded and are now available as Fragments.

Each concert consisted of a single, lengthy piece, combining improvisation and composition (Rivers and Lyons worked from sheet music) and titled “Fragments of a Dedication to Duke Ellington”. The Paris performances—an extended afternoon set lasting more than 90 minutes and an evening show lasting 50 minutes—were also filmed for French television but never officially released. The record actually has the shorter evening set sequenced first, and it begins with a French announcer presenting the musicians in his native language (with Taylor plinking away at the keys, as if he can’t wait to get started), before the band comes crashing down with lightning speed.

The liner notes on Fragments are hyper-detailed and extremely generous, featuring an extensive essay by Taylor biographer Phil Freeman, as well as notes by album co-producer (with Freeman) Zev Feldman, lone surviving Unit member Cyrille, drummer Jack DeJohnette (who was playing in Davis’ quintet on this tour), Rivers’ daughter Monique, and more. “I would get excited to have Cecil playing before we went on,” writes DeJohnette, who passed away in 2025, “because it revved me up. His playing charged me with energy. Not just energy, creative energy. Along with Jimmy Lyons and Andrew Cyrille, the stage was reverberating when that band finished. It was still on fire.”

During both sets, that energy DeJohnette refers to leaps off the grooves of Fragments. As Freeman writes, “…if you listen carefully, even though they’re emerging at blinding speed, there are clearly perceptible ideas at work.” The band’s chemistry is undeniable, particularly when you consider the contrast between the playing of Rivers and Lyons and the astonishing interplay between Taylor and Cyrille. This band was truly at the height of its powers.

The 1969 tour marked the end of this phase for Taylor, as he would go on to lecture as an artist-in-residence at universities, receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and also return to the stage, even playing for Jimmy Carter on the White House lawn. He passed away in 2018 at the age of 89. He was a prolific recording artist, with a vast discography that would suit Taylor experts and neophytes alike. Fragments is yet another masterpiece to showcase his gifts as a pianist, composer, and bandleader.

“This music is of biblical importance in many ways for fans of Cecil Taylor and the avant-garde movement,” writes Feldman in the liner notes. “It was captured at an exciting time in his career, joined by a group of absolute titans in this music.”