Love for Sale in Bloomington, MN

This may be the straightest record
Cecil Taylor
ever recorded, but it is far from uninspiring. Despite its hopelessly gauche cover -- one can only presume
Taylor
had no say-so in the choice of artwork used --
's approach to three
Cole Porter
tunes with a trio and three of his own with a quintet is a lively combination, and one which, in lieu of his later work, reveals the construction of his system of
improvisation
better than his later records do when he is playing from the middle of it. Accompanied by
Dennis Charles
on drums and
Buell Neidlinger
on bass,
dives deep into
Porter
's
"I Love Paris,"
a shifty little
pop
song.
goes head to head with
Neidlinger
in a contrapuntal statement of the melody -- illustrated by chord changes which are extrapolated from the melodic sequence -- against harmony before actually flowing into the main theme of the tune for a moment before kicking the rhythm section loose and treating the tune percussively, almost as if it were a series of rhythm changes instead of harmonic ones. On the title track it's much the same, except
's tenderness shines through in his lilting right hand in the middle as he trades fours with
Charles
. There's a wonderful cut-time tempo here, and
starts building scales harmonically in his solo only to answer them with the melody and original harmony. With his own three tunes, with trumpeter
Ted Curson
and saxophonist
Bill Barron
added to the fray,
takes more chances. On
"Little Lees (Louise),"
he scores in an elaborate melody that is played without dissonance by the horn section as he and
play entirely in counterpoint. But here, too, there is a sublime lyricism at work; there are no extra notes or chords, and everything falls in line with the chromatic architecture
composes with.
"Maities Trophie"
is
ringing in a
blues
jam a la
Ellington
-- or at least his version of
. The solos by
Curson
and
Barron
are tight, narrative, and bordering on
swing
, but all that's taken care of by
's solo.
Love for Sale
is a delightful anomaly in
's long career. ~ Thom Jurek