Looking Ahead! is an album by pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 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 for the Contemporary

Contemporary Records

Contemporary Records was a jazz record label founded by Lester Koenig in 1951 in Los Angeles. Contemporary was known for seminal recordings embodying the West Coast sound, but also released recordings based in New York...

 label in June 1958. The album features performances by Taylor with Buell Neidlinger

Buell Neidlinger

Buell Neidlinger is an American cellist and double bassist.Neidlinger was born in Westport, Connecticut. After Yale University, he moved to New York City and began playing in various jazz settings...

, Denis Charles

Denis Charles

-Biography:Charles was born in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and first played bongos at age seven with local ensembles in the Virgin Islands. In 1945 he moved to New York, and gigged frequently around town. In 1954 he began working with Cecil Taylor, and the pair collaborated through 1958. Following...

 and Earl Griffith

Earl Griffith

Harry Earl Griffith was a newspaper publisher who served as the Secretary of the State of Ohio from 1939-1940.Griffith was born in Centerburg, Ohio in Knox county. He was the son of Nellie Myrtle and Harry Saiger Griffith. He attended Mount Gilead public schools...

. The Allmusic review by Brian Olewnick states "Looking Ahead! does just that while still keeping several toes in the tradition. It's an amazing document of a talent fairly straining at the reins, a meteor about to burst onto the jazz scene and render it forever changed... Looking Ahead! is a vital recording from the nascence of one of the towering geniuses of modern music and belongs in any jazz fan's collection".

Track listing

All compositions by Cecil Tayor except as indicated

1. "Luyah! The Glorious Step" - 6:25
2. "African Violets" (Griffith, Taylor) - 5:12
3. "Of What" - 8:18
4. "Wallering" - 5:22
5. "Toll" - 7:38
6. "Excursion on a Wobbly Rail" - 9:04
   • Recorded at Nola's Penthouse Studios, NYC, June 9, 1958

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...
  
  
• Buell Neidlinger
  Buell Neidlinger
  Buell Neidlinger is an American cellist and double bassist.Neidlinger was born in Westport, Connecticut. After Yale University, he moved to New York City and began playing in various jazz settings...
  
  : bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Denis Charles
  Denis Charles
  -Biography:Charles was born in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, and first played bongos at age seven with local ensembles in the Virgin Islands. In 1945 he moved to New York, and gigged frequently around town. In 1954 he began working with Cecil Taylor, and the pair collaborated through 1958. Following...
  
  : 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 ....
  
  
• Earl Griffith
  Earl Griffith
  Harry Earl Griffith was a newspaper publisher who served as the Secretary of the State of Ohio from 1939-1940.Griffith was born in Centerburg, Ohio in Knox county. He was the son of Nellie Myrtle and Harry Saiger Griffith. He attended Mount Gilead public schools...
  
  : vibes
  Vibraphone
  The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....