''Always a Pleasure'' is a

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...

recorded during the Workshop Freie Musik at the

Akademie der Kunste The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

, Berlin on April 8, 1993, and released in 1996 on the FMP label. The album features a concert performance by Taylor with Longineu Parsons,

Harri Sjöström Harri Sjöström (born February 29, 1952 in Turku, Finland) is a saxophonist who specializes in the soprano saxophone. Life and career Harri studied saxophone with Harry Mann, Leo Wright and Steve Lacy. He also studied photography and film at th ...

Charles Gayle Charles Gayle (born February 28, 1939) is an American free jazz musician. Initially known as a saxophonist who came to prominence in the 1990s after decades of obscurity, Gayle also performs as pianist, bass clarinetist, bassist, and percussioni ...

Tristan Honsinger Tristan Honsinger (born October 23, 1949) is an American cello player active in free jazz and free improvisation. He is perhaps best known for his long-running collaboration with free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and guitarist Derek Bailey. Born ...

Sirone Sirone ( Brianzöö: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northeast of Milan and about southwest of Lecco. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 2,270 and an area of .Al ...

and

Rashid Bakr Rashid Bakr may refer to: * Rashid Bakr (musician) (born 1943), American free jazz drummer * Rashid Bakr (politician) El Rashid El Tahir Bakr (24 June 1933 – 11 March 1988)

. A recording of part five of the concert, titled "Fifth Pleasure", was released by FMP in 1998 on the Taylor compilation album ''Concrete''.

Reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Thom Jurek called the group "an ensemble that plays so intrinsically 'together' that it feels like the band Taylor has been trying to assemble since the death of his altoist, Jimmy Lyons", and wrote: "This is easily the best large-unit Taylor record of the '90s. Fans and curiosity seekers would be well-advised to seek it out and prepare themselves to be blown away by the depth and dimension Taylor's musical soul reveals when it is challenged and upheld by such a phenomenal group of talent". Writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' ,

Ben Ratliff Ben Ratliff (born 1968 in New York City) is an American journalist, music critic and author. Ratliff is the son of an English mother and an American father, growing up in London and in Rockland County, New York. From 1996 to 2016, he wrote abo ...

gave the album a mixed review, writing: "As a Cecil Taylor-Charles Gayle album, it's a disappointment... But on other counts it succeeds: in its curious narrative flow, and its inspired passages of interplay between Mr. Taylor and the cellist Tristan Honsinger."

Track listing

:''All compositions by Cecil Taylor.'' # "First Pleasure" – 32:56 # "Second Pleasure" – 5:00 # "Third Pleasure" – 30:41 # "Fourth Pleasure" – 7:51 * Recorded at the Akademie der Kunste, Berlin on April 8, 1993

Personnel

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

* Longineu Parsons:

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

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 and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

Rashid Bakr Rashid Bakr may refer to: * Rashid Bakr (musician) (born 1943), American free jazz drummer * Rashid Bakr (politician) El Rashid El Tahir Bakr (24 June 1933 – 11 March 1988)

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

References

{{authority control 1996 live albums Cecil Taylor live albums FMP Records live albums