1989 · Album
Riobec
Recorded June 17, 1988, Berlin · FMP · Personnel: Cecil Taylor (piano), Günter Sommer (drums)
Sommer's Careful Dance with Taylor's Fire
Taylor at his most playful, creating moods and shapes and colors to be reacted to emotionally.
Riobec captures something rare: Cecil Taylor unguarded, almost conversational, and Günter Sommer meeting him there without ego. Recorded live in Berlin in June 1988, this is Taylor doing what he almost never does — playing for effect, for mood, for the listener's emotional reaction rather than his own intellectual demands. Sommer, one of Europe's finest and most overlooked percussionists, is the reason this works. He doesn't try to match Taylor's velocity or complexity. Instead, he listens, responds, places his own considerable imagination in service of Taylor's vision. The two come from entirely different musical worlds, but they move together in a flurry of elegant ideas, each thought stretched to its limit before the next arrives. The result is cinematic, almost orchestral, despite being just two instruments.
This is not Taylor's most challenging work, and that's precisely the point. Riobec sits apart from his fiercer, more abstract recordings — it's more accessible without being compromised, more lyrical without losing its edge. AllMusic reviewer Thom Jurek gave it 4.5 stars, and The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings awarded it a perfect 4/4. For listeners who find Taylor's unaccompanied work overwhelming, this is a graceful entry point. For those already committed to him, it's a rare glimpse of a player willing to be shaped by collaboration rather than commanding it absolutely.
Who's playing
Cecil Taylorpiano
Günter Sommerdrums
Where next?
More by Cecil Taylor
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