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Cecil Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and intricate polyrhythms. His piano technique has been likened to percussion, for example described as "eighty-eight tuned drums". After first steps in R&B and swing-styled small groups in the early 1950s, he formed his own band with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1956. Taylor's first recording, Jazz Advance, featured Lacy and was released in 1956. He collaborated with saxophonist John Coltrane in 1958 on the album Stereo Drive. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Taylor's music grew more complex and moved away from existing jazz styles. Landmark recordings, like Unit Structures (1966), appeared. With 'The Unit', musicians developed often volcanic new forms of conversational interplay. By 1961, Taylor was working regularly with alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, one of his most important and consistent collaborators. Taylor, Lyons and drummer Sunny Murray (and later Andrew Cyrille) formed the core personnel of The Unit, Taylor's primary group effort until Lyons's premature death in 1986. Lyons' playing, strongly influenced by jazz icon Charlie Parker, retained a strong blues sensibility and helped keep Taylor's increasingly avant-garde music tethered to the jazz tradition. In the 1970s Cecil Taylor often played live as a solo performer and many recordings of such gigs were released on album. He continued to gig throughout the 80s and formed the Feel Trio in the early 1990s with William Parker (bass) and Tony Oxley (drums). This 5 disc set includes all the recordings released by Taylor between 1956 - the year of his recording debut - and 1962, the period which, for most of his audience, contains the finest work this maverick musician ever produced.

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