{"id":124043,"date":"2018-04-09T14:34:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T18:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=124043"},"modified":"2018-04-09T15:21:09","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T19:21:09","slug":"cecil-taylor-march-25-1929-april-5-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/09\/cecil-taylor-march-25-1929-april-5-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Cecil Taylor (March 25, 1929\u2013April 5, 2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_124044\" style=\"width: 671px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/cecil-taylor.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-124044\" class=\"size-full wp-image-124044\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/cecil-taylor.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"661\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/cecil-taylor.jpg 661w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/cecil-taylor-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-124044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cecil Taylor.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One New Year\u2019s Eve, long ago, I was wandering around with friends and noticed a small handwritten sign on the door of Saint Peter\u2019s Church on Lexington Avenue. I went to look\u2014<small>TEN THIRTY\u00a0<\/small><small>P.M.:<\/small> <small>CECIL TAYLOR FREE CONCERT<\/small>. It was 10:15. We walked in. There were about thirteen, fourteen others there, a mix of jazz fans, retired postmen, and churchgoers, all spread out in various pews. There was a Steinway grand set up on the altar. At ten thirty\u00a0sharp, Cecil Taylor appeared, sat down, and began playing with cheerful gravity. The music was so small at first that it seemed like it was in miniature, but slowly it grew until it filled the church to overflowing, and the joy was contagious. People were laughing, and the sound kept expanding until we could hardly stand it. A few minutes after midnight, Taylor stopped for a moment, took off his sunglasses, and bowed his head. \u201cHappy New Year!\u201d he said. \u201cTo all of us. Everyone. Happy New Year.\u201d And then he continued playing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; One New Year\u2019s Eve, long ago, I was wandering around with friends and noticed a small handwritten sign on the door of Saint Peter\u2019s Church on Lexington Avenue. I went to look\u2014TEN THIRTY\u00a0P.M.: CECIL TAYLOR FREE CONCERT. It was 10:15. We walked in. There were about thirteen, fourteen others there, a mix of jazz [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5116,330,6017],"class_list":["post-124043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam","tag-cecil-taylor","tag-jazz","tag-new-years-eve"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cecil Taylor (March 25, 1929\u2013April 5, 2018 )<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A brief encounter with Cecil Taylor, one of the pioneers of free jazz.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/09\/cecil-taylor-march-25-1929-april-5-2018\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cecil Taylor (March 25, 1929\u2013April 5, 2018) by Brian Cullman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 9, 2018 \u2013 &nbsp; 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