Cecil Taylor – Unit Structures

This is the avant garde if there ever was. There is something so unique and otherworldly about this music. The jagged rhythms, abrupt changes, it sounds like a 100 songs put in one. There are so many special moments, this is one to sit down and really listen to. I really love how this group gives so much room for all the players to be heard. It's not probably the easiest stuff for a casual jazz fan but if you give it a chance prepare to have your mind blown. My copy is perfect and this is the way to hear it for sure. I've had the CD for years but this is a new experience hearing it from a great vinyl pressing as this.

Bright and crispy sounds over and here and there. Interesting stereo details but overall result it could be better ...

Optimal is still up to their same tricks, which means your chances of getting a "good" copy of this are probably around 50/50. The first copy I received was badly dished. Second copy largely fine.

As for this music it's great and I'm glad to have this on KG mastered vinyl to supplement my old CD version. Myopic Blue Note fans and folks new to jazz might have a hard time with this one...

perfectly flat pressing of this one, no flaws whatsoever.. this record is super "out there", not for the new listener lol..

RVG did well to balance all the divergent instrumentation here. The palate of chaos is handled better here, than say a similar album of its time, Love & Peace.

clips and pops galore. i bought a few of these 75th anniversary reissues and most of them were like this one. such a shame! the vinyl for the 80the series is much better.

I assume the audio quality is good as these seem to be sought after represses?

I don't have a bad word to say about quality of the Blue Note's 75th Anniversary vinyl series in general. All of the EU pressings I've purchased have been top notch quality. Well, the US pressings are whole different story and what you get in the package varies a lot. What Amazon DE did send me was the US pressing with a little bit of surface noise and cracks and pops here and there. However, proper cleaning with liquid did the magic and now I hold the somehow enjoyable piece of listening. I'm still keeping one eye open for EU pressing (or NM 60's copy). So when in doubt: wash your records.

After several years off records, pianist Cecil Taylor finally had an opportunity to document his music of the mid-'60s on two Blue Note albums (the other one was Conquistador). Taylor's high-energy atonalism fit in well with the free jazz of the period but he was actually leading the way rather than being part of a movement. In fact, this septet outing with trumpeter Eddie Gale, altoist Jimmy Lyons, Ken McIntyre (alternating between alto, oboe and bass clarinet), both Henry Grimes and Alan Silva on basses, and drummer Andrew Cyrille is quite stunning and very intense. In fact, it could be safely argued that no jazz music of the era approached the ferocity and intensity of Cecil Taylor's.