condition (records/cover): EX / EX (cut-out drill hole)

Gatefold sleeve.

A Blue Note twofer gathering the crucial earliest chapters of the Cecil Taylor story - the 1956 Jazz Advance material with Steve Lacy and the late-fifties sessions that followed, when the revolution was still wearing song forms and standards while systematically dismantling them from inside, politely at first. The seventies LA-series double LPs did honest, valuable work returning out-of-print foundations to circulation with proper liner documentation and generous sequencing, and this is one of the series' essential entries: the title says precisely and poetically what these years were - the greatest transition in the history of jazz piano, caught mid-stride. Hearing the young Taylor bend "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" toward the future remains a genuine thrill, the familiar melody walking willingly into the new world; hearing Lacy's soprano beside him doubles it.

Two LPs of origin story, properly told, in the gatefold format built for exactly this kind of deep documentary listening. Foundations, beautifully poured.