The Great Concert of Cecil Taylor is a live album

Live album

A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...

 by Cecil Taylor

Cecil Taylor

Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...

 recorded in St. Paul de Vence, Nice, on July 29, 1969, and released on the Prestige

Prestige Records

Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...

 label in 1977 as a 3-LP set. The album was originally released as Nuits de la Fondation Maeght on the French Shandar label as a box set, as three separate LPs in 1971, and later on the (bootleg) Italian Jazz View label as three separate CDs, mastered from a noisy vinyl source. No legal CD edition of this recording has been issued. It features a performance by Taylor with Jimmy Lyons

Jimmy Lyons

Jimmy Lyons was an alto saxophone player. He is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit.-Biography:...

, Sam Rivers

Sam Rivers

Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....

 and Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...

. The Allmusic review by Ron Wynn states "Three discs of amazing playing".

Track listing

All compositions by Cecil Taylor.

1. "Second Act Of A (Part 1)" - 21:17
2. "Second Act Of A (Part 2)" - 20:51
3. "Second Act Of A (Part 3)" - 18:08
4. "Second Act Of A (Part 4)" - 16:11
5. "Second Act Of A (Part 5)" - 12:45
6. "Second Act Of A (Part 6)" - 20:38
   • Recorded in St. Paul de Vence, Nice, on July 29, 1969

Personnel

• Cecil Taylor
  Cecil Taylor
  Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
  
  : piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  
• Jimmy Lyons
  Jimmy Lyons
  Jimmy Lyons was an alto saxophone player. He is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit.-Biography:...
  
  : alto saxophone
  Alto saxophone
  The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
  
  
• Sam Rivers
  Sam Rivers
  Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....
  
  : soprano saxophone
  Soprano saxophone
  The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
  
  , tenor saxophone
  Tenor saxophone
  The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
  
  
• Andrew Cyrille
  Andrew Cyrille
  Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...
  
  : drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....