Cecil Taylor

condition (record/cover): NM / NM

1958: Cecil Taylor on Contemporary, with Earl Griffith's vibraphone adding an unlikely and beautiful cool-toned foil, plus the loyal Buell Neidlinger and Dennis Charles holding the ground as it shifts beneath them. The title kept its promise in more directions than one: "Excursion on a Wobbly Rail" would reach ears far beyond jazz - a certain Velvet Underground was famously listening, and said so - while the whole program shows Taylor's language crystallizing track by track, the percussive attack and layered rhythms pushing against song forms that barely contain them and clearly will not for much longer. Griffith's vibes give the density unexpected shimmer, a color Taylor never used again, which makes this session unique in the discography. Late-fifties Taylor is a thrilling in-between: one foot in the club, one already in the concert hall of the future, both swinging.

US Contemporary stereo pressing of an essential early chapter, and a beautiful record by any measure at all.