Cecil Taylor – Live in the Black Forest MPS 0068.220 (1979)
One of many live Cecil Taylor recordings from the 1970s, Live in the Black Forest was recorded less than two weeks prior to One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye with the same Cecil Taylor Unit band. Frankly, this is not as good as some of the others of that era. There are two side-long tracks. “Sperichill on Calling” is great, with an especially strong showing from Ramsey Ameen on violin, and generally more separation between the players. “The Eel Pot” on side one is fine, but the sometimes unrelentingly chaotic performance kind of runs together after a while. If the entire recording is analogized to a debate, then “The Eel Pot” is a bit combative, and “Sperichill on Calling” has more sympathetic goading and expansion of argument. While listeners can’t really go wrong with any Taylor recordings of this era, Live in the Black Forest might be reserved until after some of the others.