The World Of Cecil Taylor is the fifth studio album by radical, free jazz pianist pioneer, Cecil Taylor. Taylor’s music is often described as ahead of its time. And it’s easy to imagine what the reaction of the average jazz fan was to this recording. It is arguably a tremendous departure from what jazz was widely considered to be at the time.

At once a modern approach to standard material and a genre pushing exploration, it is a document of an artist pushing the boundaries of what jazz meant and where it was capable of going. Traditional jazz forms are stretched and ripped apart. Notoriously, Taylor recorded the composition “Air” 29 times before he was satisfied. He is famously quoted as describing his approach to the piano as, “eighty-eight tuned drums.”

Taylor was born in Queens, New York, and began playing piano at a young age. He trained classically at the New York College of Music, and the New England Conservatory of Boston. Emerging in the mid 1950s, Taylor developed his percussive approach to the piano, combining it with outstanding technique from his classical training.

Recorded October of 1960 at the Nola Penthouse Studios in New York by Candid A&R and producer Nat Hentoff, released in 1961, and featuring saxophonist Archie Shepp on one of his earliest recording dates.

The LP includes extraordinary liner notes by Hentoff, jazz critic Martin Williams, and bassist Buell Neidlinger.