Cecil Taylor

Featuring: Steve Lacy

condition (record/cover): NM / NM

No obi.

1956: the beginning of the revolution, before anyone knew a revolution was scheduled - Cecil Taylor's debut Jazz Advance, with Steve Lacy's soprano aboard and standards like "Bemsha Swing" and "Sweet and Lovely" bent through a harmonic prism nobody had ever looked through before. The title was a plain description rather than a boast: this is jazz advancing, in real time, the cluster chords and rhythmic displacements already unmistakable while the song forms still stand around them like buildings before demolition day. Hearing the twenty-something Taylor negotiate with Monk, Ellington and Tin Pan Alley - respectfully, ruthlessly - is essential for understanding everything after: the revolution grew from the deepest possible roots in the tradition it transformed, which is why it held. Lacy's presence, at the very start of his own singular path, doubles the historical charge.

Japanese Blue Note pressing of the original Transition session. Where modern piano's boldest story opens - start here, and hold on.