Poschiavo is a live solo piano album by American musician Cecil Taylor. It was recorded in May 1999 at the Uncool Festival in Poschiavo, Switzerland, and was released by the Black Sun label in 2018.[1][2] The album, which consists of a single piece with a duration of nearly an hour, was recorded on a Bösendorfer grand piano.[2] Taylor was sixty-nine years old at the time of the recording.[2]
| Poschiavo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Live album by | |
| Released | April 16, 2018 |
| Recorded | May 14, 1999 |
| Venue | Uncool Festival, Poschiavo, Switzerland |
| Genre | Free jazz |
| Length | 54:39 |
| Label | Black Sun 15046-2 |
| Producer | Cornelia G. Müller |
Reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| The Free Jazz Collective |   [3] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | B+[4] |
In a review for The Free Jazz Collective, Colin Green awarded the album 4½ stars, and wrote: "If there is a unifying factor that runs through the performance and these sweeping ranges of timbre and dynamic, it is how Taylor's discourse subtly balances and fuses apparent opposites: formal versus flexible, stylised but spontaneous, tactile and cerebral, a domain of constant transformation which is nevertheless cyclic... We hear a spectrum of textures, enriched by their mosaic-like juxtaposition – pulsating vibrancy cross-cut with hard-edge contours – yet also fine gradations and elegant shading... Recommended, with a handshake."[3]
Critic Tom Hull awarded the album a "B+" grade, and commented: "Rumbles much, roars on occasion."[4]
Bruce Lee Gallanter of the Downtown Music Gallery stated: "Mr. Taylor is in extremely fine form here, tossing off those wonderful fractured lines, balancing those dark low end spidery lines with those upper (right hand) cascades... For those of you who love what Mr. Taylor does, this is a most rewarding release."[5]
Dusted Magazine's Derek Taylor included the album in his 2018 year-end picks.[6] Robert Reigle and Steve Koenig of Acoustic Levitation featured it in their "Best of 2018" lists.[7]
Track listing
editComposed by Cecil Taylor.
- "Untitled" – 54:39
Personnel
edit- Cecil Taylor – piano
References
edit- ^ "Cecil Taylor: Poschiavo". Jazz Music Archives. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ a b c "Cecil Taylor". Black Sun. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ a b Green, Colin (August 25, 2018). "Cecil Taylor: Poschiavo (Black Sun, 2018)". The Free Jazz Collective. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ a b Hull, Tom. "Streamnotes (December, 2018)". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ Gallanter, Bruce Lee. "DMG Newsletter for June 12th, 2020". Downtown Music Gallery. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ Taylor, Derek (January 4, 2019). "Year End 2018". Dusted Magazine. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ "Best of 2018". Acoustic Levitation. Archived from the original on April 11, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2022.