1996 · Album
Almeda (To Matie)
Recorded November 2, 1996, Podewil, Berlin · FMP · Context: Part of the Total Music Meeting festival; released 2004
Nine Voices in Intuitive Communion
Taylor delivers poetry with his voice at the outset, then enters the piano for a 35-minute closing movement.
By 2004, when Almeda was released, Cecil Taylor had spent four decades establishing himself as one of jazz's most uncompromising voices — a pianist and bandleader who refused to settle into comfortable patterns. This live recording from November 1996 captures him at full maturity, leading a nine-piece ensemble through a single continuous performance that lasts over 77 minutes. It's not a late-career reassessment or a softening of his approach; if anything, it confirms what he'd been pursuing all along: music as collective invention, with no predetermined harmonies or formal structures to fall back on.
What makes Almeda distinctive is Taylor's restraint in the opening movement. Instead of dominating with his signature piano attack, he steps back and uses his voice — reciting poetry — while the ensemble explores textures around him. The musicians are given room to establish their own gravity before he enters on piano for the final 35-minute section, where the music deepens into something almost ritualistic. AllMusic reviewer arwulf arwulf praised it as among Taylor's finest large ensemble realizations, noting that the nine individuals "succeeded in establishing an uncommonly fertile common ground" — which is exactly what makes this performance matter. This isn't novelty or late-period experimentation for its own sake. It's Taylor demonstrating that after decades, his commitment to intuitive group improvisation remained as vital as ever, and that he could still draw something genuinely collaborative out of a large group without sacrificing intensity or vision.
Who's playing
Dominic Duvaldouble bass
Cecil Taylorpiano
Chris Jonassaxophone
Harri Sjöströmsoprano saxophone
Chris Matthaytrumpet
Jeff Hoyertrombone
Jackson Kralldrums
Tristan Honsingercello
Elliott Levinwind instruments
Where next?
More by Cecil Taylor
All 77 albums →
