1981 · Album
Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!
Recorded September 14, 1980, Villingen, Germany · MPS · Format: Solo piano
Eight Originals, One Piano, Pure Taylor
A hidden gem where Taylor's lyricism shines without compromising his uncompromising vision.
Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! arrived quietly on MPS in 1980, a solo piano session that caught critics' attention immediately but never quite broke through to casual listeners. AllMusic reviewer Ken Dryden and others recognized it as one of Taylor's hidden gems, though it lived in the shadow of his more notorious group recordings. That obscurity is unfortunate, because this album reveals something often buried under his fiercer work: real compositional clarity.
Taylor performs eight originals here, and the catch is their brevity. "T (Beautiful Young'n)" runs 53 seconds. Elsewhere, pieces stretch into longer meditations, but none of this feels like compromise. Instead, Scott Yanow noted that Taylor's lyricism comes forward without mellowing his edge—he simply chose to emphasize different colors. The music draws on 20th century classical influences, free improvisation, and blues sensibility in single compositions, making each track feel genuinely accessible without losing density. Listen to how he stacks ideas, pivots between registers, finds silence.
This isn't Taylor's entry point—most people start with his trio records or Conquistador. But for anyone already familiar with his language, this session shows him working with deliberation, selecting which weapons to use rather than deploying them all at once. It's a pianist in control of his own vastness.
Who's playing
Cecil Taylorgrand piano
Where next?
More by Cecil Taylor
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