Person
Biography
Cecil Taylor was a fiercely original jazz pianist who defied the established conventions of his chosen art form. Born in Queens, NY, and classically trained, Taylor had already begun to define a unique musical path by the mid-1950s when he formed his first group and made his first record while still in his twenties. His struggle to gain acceptance became part of his legend, and he supported himself by washing dishes in the early 1960s rather than bending to commercial pressures. He would occasionally perform in a duo with another improviser, and those experiments led to an infamous concert with pianist Mary Lou Williams in 1977; memorable performances with Max Roach in 1979, 1989 and 2000; and collaborations with the Japanese butoh dancer Min Tanaka. It was with Tanaka that Taylor came to Jacob’s Pillow for a series of performances in 1996. New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art devoted a two-week series to Taylor’s work in 2016, when Tanaka and Taylor were reunited in an ambitious attempt to explore the work of an artist who would not be held to the conventions of any one discipline. Taylor died in April 2018 at age 89.
Source of Biography
Written by Norton Owen for Jacob's Pillow Remembers.
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