2000 · Album
At AngelicA 2000 Bologna
Recorded May 10–11, 2000, Teatro Comunale Di Bologna, Bologna, Italy · I Dischi Di Angelica · Produced by Massimo Simonini
Taylor at Eighty, Still Uncompromising
Cross-rhythms and swung melodies collide with irresistible verve across a three-part concerto for piano and voice.
By 2000, Cecil Taylor was in his late seventies and had spent five decades refusing to settle into any comfortable groove. This live recording from Bologna captures him near a genuine peak — not a return to form, but proof that his restless invention never quit. The first disc is a single three-part work called "Dance of All Seasons," and it shows Taylor doing what few pianists of any age could manage: building vast architectures out of collision and momentum, layers of cross-rhythm that somehow generate joy instead of chaos. The piano and voice work together without harmony in the traditional sense, just two forces in constant dialogue, each pulling the other toward revelation.
What matters here is the refusal to simplify with age. Taylor could have coasted on reputation. Instead, "Dance of All Seasons" sprawls and reconfigures itself across the length of disc one, each section reshaping what came before. The second disc pivots: an interview with musicologist Franco Fabbri, interwoven with fragments of the performance and a montage constructed by festival director Massimo Simonini. It's an unusual choice for a release, but it works because Taylor is generous and articulate in conversation, explaining his thinking without reducing it to catchphrases.
Critic Phil Freeman placed this alongside The Willisau Concert, calling both among Taylor's finest solo documents. That comparison matters: Bologna belongs with his strongest late-career work, proof that his singular voice only deepened with time.
Who's playing
Cecil Taylorpiano
