Cecil Taylor New Unit

Featuring: Harri Sjöström, Okkyung Lee, Tony Oxley

"A small gift for a great Cecil Taylor history. On 23 April 2016, Jay Sanders organised and recorded a concert whose significance at the time was impossible to estimate. The great Cecil Taylor was accompanied by the wonderful musicians Okkyung Lee, Tony Oxley, Harri Sjostrom and Jackson Krall. After the concert, Cecil announced that it was time to return to the legendary formula he had used several times in his career, which served as an emblem of what was particularly important in his work.

 

Unit, as this name/formula is called, was reserved for the greatest bands in his career. In April 2016, New Unit was born before the eyes of the audience, a new formation that referred to the most glorious periods of its stage history. From stories and witnesses of that event, we know that Cecil Taylor wanted to continue exploring the world of music with his New Unit. However, it turned out that the first concert of the new formation was also its last performance, as well as the last concert in Cecil Taylor's life. Less than two years later, Cecil was no longer with us. The concert, however, remained preserved in Jay Sanders' archive, and thanks to his kindness and trust, we can enjoy it today. 

We agreed that a musical document of this calibre should not remain hidden, but also that, as a unique event, if it is to appear on CD, it should be in a small print run. And so it will be: only 200 copies will be available for sale worldwide, because I firmly believe that the respect due to history should not overshadow what is most important, namely, attention to the music that is yet to come.