condition (record/cover): NM / NM

Gatefold sleeve.

Saint-Paul-de-Vence, July 1969: Cecil Taylor at the Fondation Maeght - the same enchanted French sculpture-garden venue that would host Ayler's farewell a year later - with the great unit of Jimmy Lyons, Sam Rivers and Andrew Cyrille. The music is a sustained force of nature: Rivers and Lyons weaving twin-reed filigree and fire over Cyrille's multidirectional storm while Taylor builds and demolishes cathedrals at the keyboard, at enormous length, before a rapt audience that came knowing exactly what it was in for and got more. The Maeght concerts stand as pillars of the live Taylor discography - the sixties unit at maximum documented intensity, in an acoustic setting worthy of it, at the end of the decade the band spent redefining what ensemble music could withstand. This first volume opens the monument properly.

Japanese RCA mono pressing, solid and present. Sixties Taylor at full force, which is full force, period - approach with strong speakers and an open evening.