Words and Music the last bandstand

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.
We present to you the complete, final concert of a great artist, certainly one of the greatest in history. Before you are nearly 80 minutes of music that will never happen again.
I would like to thank all the fantastic and extremely creative musicians who took part in it and made it so special, as well as everyone who gave it the setting it deserved. Above all, I would like to thank Jay Sanders, the producer and owner of the recording of this concert, who not only made its release possible but also wrote a valuable memoir of that event. You will find it, as well as a wonderful essay by Cecil Taylor’s biographer, Phil Freeman, inside the album cover. Separate and no less heartfelt thanks go to Marcin Rzadkowski (SEMAFOR), who designed the album cover, and Grzegorz Piwkowski, whose talent gave the recording its special sound.