Conquistador!
Conquistador! | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Cecil Taylor | ||||
Released | March 1968[1] | |||
Recorded | October 6, 1966 | |||
Studio | Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey | |||
Genre | Free jazz | |||
Length | 37:14 | |||
Label | Blue Note | |||
Producer | Alfred Lion | |||
Cecil Taylor chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
All About Jazz | [2] |
AllMusic | [3] |
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [4] |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [5] |
Conquistador! is a 1968 studio album recorded in 1966 by free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, released by Blue Note Records.[6]
Critical reception
Writing for AllMusic, Scott Yanow gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating that "During the two lengthy pieces, [Jimmy] Lyons' passionate solos contrast with [Bill] Dixon's quieter ruminations while the music in general is unremittingly intense."[3]
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album 4 stars, calling it "an all but flawless record," and commenting: "Dark, difficult, unique, yet operating at an artful tangent to some of the other 'difficult' Blue Note music of the period, this is Taylor at his most devious."[5]
Writing for Vinyl Me Please, Brian Josephs stated: "Conquistador!... swerves away from Unit Structures' fire and evokes the coolness of its cover, which features a turtlenecked Taylor slightly out of focus, hiding behind shades as he mysteriously stares into the distance. The musical elements don’t combust as much as they melt into each other: Horns swell shrilly at the borders to add haunted textures, while Andrew Cyrille's amorphous rhythms tie the masterwork together. Even without Unit Structures as its contrast, Conquistador! still stands as a great testament to this sui generis collective."[7]
In 2008, The New Yorker placed it at number 87 on the "100 Essential Jazz Albums" list.[8]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Cecil Taylor
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Conquistador" | 17:54 |
2. | "With (Exit)" | 19:20 |
3. | "With (Exit) [Alternate Take]" (CD edition bonus track) | 17:24 |
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.
- Cecil Taylor – piano
- Bill Dixon – trumpet
- Jimmy Lyons – alto saxophone
- Henry Grimes – double bass
- Alan Silva – double bass
- Andrew Cyrille – drums
References
- ^ Billboard Mar 9, 1968
- ^ Fleming, Colin (October 17, 2004). "Cecil Taylor: Conquistador!". All About Jazz. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
- ^ a b Yanow, Scott. "Conquistador! - Cecil Taylor". AllMusic. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
- ^ Swenson, John, ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 189. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
- ^ a b Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1381. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
- ^ Murray, Robin (April 6, 2018). "Free Jazz Innovator Cecil Taylor Has Died". Clash. Archived from the original on April 6, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
- ^ Josephs, Brian (September 12, 2018). "A Cecil Taylor Primer". Vinyl Me Please. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ^ Remnick, David (May 19, 2008). "100 Essential Jazz Albums". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 5, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
External links
- Conquistador! at Discogs (list of releases)
- v
- t
- e
- Jazz Advance
- Looking Ahead!
- Stereo Drive
- Love for Sale
- The World of Cecil Taylor
- Air
- Cell Walk for Celeste
- Jumpin' Punkins
- New York City R&B
- Unit Structures
- Conquistador!
- Cecil Taylor Unit
- 3 Phasis
- Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants)
- Chinampas
- In Florescence
- Momentum Space
- At Newport
- Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come
- Student Studies
- Praxis
- The Great Concert of Cecil Taylor
- Indent
- Akisakila
- Solo
- Spring of Two Blue J's
- Silent Tongues
- Dark to Themselves
- Air Above Mountains
- Live in the Black Forest
- One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye
- Historic Concerts
- It Is in the Brewing Luminous
- Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly!
- The Eighth
- Garden
- Iwontunwonsi
- Amewa
- For Olim
- Olu Iwa
- Live in Bologna
- Live in Vienna
- Tzotzil/Mummers/Tzotzil
- In East Berlin
- Regalia
- The Hearth
- Alms/Tiergarten (Spree)
- Remembrance
- Pleistozaen Mit Wasser
- Spots, Circles, and Fantasy
- Legba Crossing
- Erzulie Maketh Scent
- Leaf Palm Hand
- Looking (Berlin Version) Solo
- Looking (Berlin Version) The Feel Trio
- Looking (Berlin Version) Corona
- Celebrated Blazons
- 2 Ts for a Lovely T
- CT: The Dance Project
- Double Holy House
- Nailed
- Melancholy
- The Tree of Life
- Always a Pleasure
- The Light of Corona
- Almeda
- Qu'a: Live at the Iridium, Vol. 1
- Qu'a Yuba: Live at the Iridium, Vol. 2
- Lifting the Bandstand
- Algonquin
- Incarnation
- The Willisau Concert
- The Owner of the River Bank
- All the Notes
- Taylor/Dixon/Oxley
- The Last Dance
- Mixed