Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018)
was an American pianist and poet.
Taylor was
classically trained
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
and was one of the pioneers of
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex
improvisation
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
often involving
tone clusters and intricate
polyrhythms. His technique has been compared to
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
. Referring to the number of keys on a standard piano,
Val Wilmer used the phrase "eighty-eight tuned drums" to describe Taylor's style. He has been referred to as being "like
Art Tatum
Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. From early in his career, Tatum's technical ability was regarded by fellow musicians as extraord ...
with contemporary-classical leanings".
Early life and education
Cecil Percival Taylor was born on March 25, 1929, in
Long Island City,
Queens,
and raised in
Corona, Queens
Corona is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. It borders Flushing and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park to the east, Jackson Heights to the west, Forest Hills and Rego Park to the south, Elmhurst to the southwest, and E ...
.
[ Ratliff, Ben (May 3, 2012)]
"Lessons From the Dean of the School of Improv"
'' The New York Times''. Retrieved December 9, 2017: "I recently spoke with the 83-year-old improvising pianist Cecil Taylor for about five hours over two days. One day was at his three-story home in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, where he has lived since 1983.... Raised in Corona, Queens, he started out as a Harlem jam-session musician in the early 1950s and talks with intense loyalty about a line of particularly New York-identified piano players: Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Mal Waldron, John Hicks." As an only child to a middle-class family, Taylor's mother encouraged him to play music at an early age. He began playing piano at age six and went on to study at the
New York College of Music and
New England Conservatory
The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest independent music conservatory in the United States and among the most prestigious in the world. The conservatory is located on Hu ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- most p ...
. At the New England Conservatory, Taylor majored in composition and arranging. During his time there, he also became familiar with contemporary European
art music
Art music (alternatively called classical music, cultivated music, serious music, and canonic music) is music considered to be of high phonoaesthetic value. It typically implies advanced structural and theoretical considerationsJacques Siron, ...
.
Bela Bartók and
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
notably influenced his music.
In 1955, Taylor moved back to New York City from Boston. He formed a quartet with soprano saxophonist,
Steve Lacy, bassist
Buell Neidlinger
Buell Neidlinger (March 2, 1936 – March 16, 2018) was an American cellist and double bassist. He has worked with a variety of pop and jazz performers, prominently with iconoclastic pianist Cecil Taylor in the 1950s and '60s.
Biography
Neidling ...
, and drummer
Dennis Charles.
Taylor's first recording, ''
Jazz Advance'', featured Lacy and was released in 1956. The recording is described by
Richard Cook and
Brian Morton in the ''Penguin Guide to Jazz'': "While there are still many nods to conventional
post-bop form in this set, it already points to the freedoms in which the pianist would later immerse himself." Taylor's quartet featuring Lacy also appeared at the 1957
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...
, which was made into the album ''
At Newport''. Taylor collaborated with saxophonist
John Coltrane in 1958 on ''
Stereo Drive
''Stereo Drive'' is an album by jazz musician Cecil Taylor featuring John Coltrane. It was released in 1959 on United Artists Records, catalogue UAS 5014. The mono edition was issued as UAL 4014 with the title ''Hard Driving Jazz'' credited to The ...
'', now available as ''Coltrane Time''.
1950s and early 1960s
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Taylor's music grew more complex and moved away from existing jazz styles. Gigs were often hard to come by, and club owners found that Taylor's approach of playing long pieces tended to impede business. His 1959
LP record ''
Looking Ahead!'' showcased his innovation as a creator as compared to the jazz mainstream. Unlike others at the time, Taylor utilized virtuosic techniques and made swift stylistic shifts from phrase to phrase. These qualities, among others, still remained notable distinctions of his music for the rest of his life.
Landmark recordings, such as ''
Unit Structures'' (1966), also appeared. Within the
Cecil Taylor Unit (a distinction that was often used at performances and recordings between 1962 and 2006 for a shifting group of sidemen), musicians were able to develop new forms of conversational interplay. In the early 1960s, an uncredited
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.
After early experience playing R&B and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Howev ...
worked with Taylor, jamming and appearing on at least one recording, ''Four'', which was unreleased until appearing on the 2004 Ayler
box set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
''
Holy Ghost: Rare & Unissued Recordings (1962–70)''.
By 1961, Taylor was working regularly with alto saxophonist
Jimmy Lyons
Jimmy Lyons (December 1, 1931 – May 19, 1986) was an American alto saxophone player. He is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit. Lyons was the only constant member of the band from the mid-1960s until his death. Taylor never ...
, who would become one of his most important and consistent collaborators. Taylor, Lyons, and drummer
Sunny Murray (and later
Andrew Cyrille
Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographer ...
) formed the core personnel of the
Cecil Taylor Unit, Taylor's primary ensemble until Lyons' death in 1986. Lyons' playing, strongly influenced by jazz icon
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
, retained a strong
blues sensibility and helped keep Taylor's increasingly
avant garde music
Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elemen ...
tethered to the jazz tradition.
Late 1960s and 1970s
Taylor began to perform solo concerts in the latter half of the 1960s. The first known recorded solo performance was "Carmen With Rings" (59 minutes) in
De Doelen concert hall in
Rotterdam on July 1, 1967. Two days earlier, Taylor had played the same composition in the
Amsterdam Concertgebouw
The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb acoustics place it among the finest concert halls in ...
. Many of his later concerts were released on album and include ''
Indent'' (1973), side one of ''
Spring of Two Blue-J's'' (1973), ''
Silent Tongues
''Silent Tongues'' is a live album by Cecil Taylor on solo piano recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974. It features Taylor's five-movement work "Silent Tongues", along with two encores.
Reception
Reviewing in '' Christgau's Record Gui ...
'' (1974), ''
Garden'' (1982), ''
For Olim'' (1987), ''
Erzulie Maketh Scent'' (1989), and ''
The Tree of Life'' (1998). He began to garner critical and popular acclaim, playing for
Jimmy Carter on the
White House Lawn, lecturing as an
artist-in-residence
Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...
at universities, and eventually being awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and a
MacArthur Fellowship in 1991.
In 1976, Taylor directed a production of
Adrienne Kennedy
Adrienne Kennedy (born September 13, 1931) is an American playwright.Peterson, Jane T., and Suzanne Bennett. "Adrienne Kennedy". ''Women Playwrights of Diversity''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. 201–205. She is best known for '' Funnyhous ...
's ''
A Rat's Mass'' at
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, the theatre began in the ...
in the
East Village of Manhattan. His production combined the original script with a chorus of orchestrated voices used as instruments.
Jimmy Lyons
Jimmy Lyons (December 1, 1931 – May 19, 1986) was an American alto saxophone player. He is best known for his long tenure in the Cecil Taylor Unit. Lyons was the only constant member of the band from the mid-1960s until his death. Taylor never ...
,
Rashid Bakr,
Andy Bey
Andrew W. Bey (born October 28, 1939) is an American jazz singer and pianist. Bey has a wide vocal range, with a four- octave baritone voice.
Raised in Newark, New Jersey,Adler, David R"Andy Bey" ''JazzTimes'', April 25, 2019. Accessed December ...
,
Karen Borca,
David S. Ware, and
Raphe Malik
Raphe Malik, born Laurence Mazel (November 1, 1948 in Cambridge, Massachusetts – March 8, 2006 in Guilford, Vermont) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Career
Malik studied at the University of Massachusetts (1966–70), then moved to Paris, w ...
performed in the production as the Cecil Taylor Unit, among other musicians and actors.
1980s, 1990s, and the Feel Trio
Following Lyons' death in 1986, Taylor formed the Feel Trio in the late 1980s with
William Parker on bass and
Tony Oxley on drums. The group can be heard on ''
Celebrated Blazons'', ''
Looking (Berlin Version) The Feel Trio'' and the 10-disc set ''
2 Ts for a Lovely T
''2 Ts for a Lovely T'' is a 10-CD limited-edition live album by American pianist Cecil Taylor. It was recorded during August 27 - September 1, 1990 at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, and was released in 2002 on the Codanza label. The album fea ...
''. Compared to his prior groups with Lyons, the Feel Trio had a more abstract approach, tethered less to jazz tradition and more aligned with the ethos of European
free improvisation. He also performed with larger ensembles and
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
projects.
Taylor's extended residence in
Berlin in 1988 was documented by the German label
FMP, resulting in a
box set
A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit.
Music
Artists and bands ...
of performances in duet and trio with a large number of European free improvisors, including Oxley,
Derek Bailey,
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation.
Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...
,
Han Bennink
Han Bennink (born 17 April 1942) is a Dutch drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured him playing soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, trombone, violin, banjo and piano.
Though perhaps best known as one of the pivotal fig ...
,
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 i ...
,
Louis Moholo, and
Paul Lovens
Paul Lovens (born 6 June 1949) is a German musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw, and cymbals. He has performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra.
He was born in Aachen, Germany. In the early ...
. Most of his later recordings have been released on European labels, with the exception of ''
Momentum Space
In physics and geometry, there are two closely related vector spaces, usually three-dimensional but in general of any finite dimension.
Position space (also real space or coordinate space) is the set of all ''position vectors'' r in space, and h ...
'' (a meeting with
Dewey Redman
Walter Dewey Redman (May 17, 1931 – September 2, 2006) was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett.
Redman mainly played tenor saxophone, though he occasionally also played al ...
and
Elvin Jones) on
Verve/Gitanes. The classical label
Bridge released his 1998
Library of Congress performance ''Algonquin'', a duet with violinist
Mat Maneri.
Taylor continued to perform for capacity audiences around the world with live concerts, usually playing his favored instrument, a
Bösendorfer
Bösendorfer (L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH) is an Austrian piano manufacturer and, since 2008, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation. Bösendorfer is unusual in that it produces 97- and 92- key models in addition to instrumen ...
piano featuring nine extra lower-register keys. In 1987, he toured England with Australian pianist
Roger Woodward, presenting recitals on which Woodward played solo works by
Xenakis,
Takemitsu, and
Feldman
Feldman is a German and Ashkenazi Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Academics
* Arthur Feldman (born 1949), American cardiologist
* David B. Feldman, American psychologist
* David Feldman (historian), American historian ...
, followed by Taylor, also playing solo. A
documentary on Taylor, entitle
''All the Notes'' was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
in 2006 by director
Chris Felver. Taylor was also featured in a 1981 documentary film entitled ''
Imagine the Sound
''Imagine the Sound'' is a 1981 Canadian documentary film about the once-controversial genre of free jazz, directed by Ron Mann. It serves as Mann's feature film directorial debut.
Background
''Imagine the Sound'' marks Mann's feature film dir ...
'', in which he discusses and performs his music, poetry, and dance.
2000s
Taylor recorded sparingly in the 2000s, but continued to perform with his own ensembles (the Cecil Taylor Ensemble and the Cecil Taylor Big Band) and with other musicians such as
Joe Locke,
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...
, and
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...
. In 2004, the Cecil Taylor Big Band at the
Iridium Jazz Club
The Iridium is a music club located on Broadway in New York City. The club featured weekly performances by Les Paul for nearly fifteen years.
History
The club opened in January 1994 at its original location, at 63rd Street and Broadway in the ...
was nominated a best performance of 2004 by
All About Jazz
''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...
.
The Cecil Taylor Trio was nominated for the same at the
Highline Ballroom
The Highline Ballroom was a music venue and nightclub located at 431 West 16th Street in Manhattan in New York City.
Description
Primarily featuring musical acts, its capacity was approximately 700 people hosting diverse concert programming fr ...
in 2009.
The trio consisted of Taylor, Albey Balgochian, and
Jackson Krall
''Jackson Krall Jr.'' (born October 12, 1949) is a drum maker.
Born in Detroit, through the years Jackson's instruments have found their way into the hands of the world's greatest drummers and percussionists, and can be heard on recordings as ...
. In 2010, Triple Point Records released a deluxe
limited-edition double
LP titled ''
Ailanthus/Altissima: Bilateral Dimensions of 2 Root Songs'', a set of duos with Taylor's longtime collaborator
Tony Oxley that was recorded live at the
Village Vanguard.
In 2013, he was awarded the
Kyoto Prize
The is Japan's highest private award for lifetime achievement in the arts and sciences. It is given not only to those that are top representatives of their own respective fields, but to "those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, ...
for Music.
He was described as "An Innovative Jazz Musician Who Has Fully Explored the Possibilities of Piano Improvisation".
In 2014, his career and 85th birthday were honored at the
Painted Bride Art Center
The Painted Bride Art Center, sometimes referred to informally as The Bride, is a non-profit artist-centered performance space and gallery particularly oriented to presenting the work of local Philadelphia artists, which presents dance, jazz, w ...
in
Philadelphia with the tribute concert event "Celebrating Cecil". In 2016, Taylor received a retrospective at the
Whitney Museum of American Art entitled "Open Plan: Cecil Taylor".
In 2008, Taylor performed with
Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music.
She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center ...
at the
Curtis R Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The concert was recorded and is available on a DVD which also features a 75-minute video of a Taylor poetry recital entitled ''Floating Gardens: The Poetry Of Cecil Taylor''. Taylor, along with dancer
Min Tanaka
is a Japanese dancer and actor.
Biography
Tanaka was trained in ballet and modern dance, but in 1974, turned his back on these forms. He began his solo career with a series of nearly-naked primarily outdoor improvisational dances that took place ...
, was the subject of
Amiel Courtin-Wilson's 2016 documentary film ''The Silent Eye''.
Ballet and dance
In addition to piano, Taylor was always interested in ballet and dance. His mother, who died while he was young, was a dancer and played the piano and violin. Taylor once said: "I try to imitate on the piano the leaps in space a dancer makes." He collaborated with dancer
Dianne McIntyre
Dianne McIntyre (born July 18, 1946) is an American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her notable works include ''Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Dance Adventure in Southern Blues (A Choreodrama)'', an adaptation of Zora Neal Hurston's novel '' ...
in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1979, he composed and played the music for a 12-minute ballet, "Tetra Stomp: Eatin' Rain in Space", featuring
Mikhail Baryshnikov and
Heather Watts
Heather Watts (born Linda Heather Watts; September 27, 1953) is a ballet dancer, most known for her time with the New York City Ballet.
Biography
Born in Long Beach, California, her dream as a little girl was to be an actress. An acting coa ...
.
Poetry
Taylor was a poet, and cited
Robert Duncan,
Charles Olson
Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modern American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New Yo ...
, and
Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism. He was the author of numerous bo ...
as major influences. He often integrated his poems into his musical performances, and they frequently appear in the
liner notes
Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes.
Origin
Liner notes are descen ...
of his albums. The album ''
Chinampas
Chinampa ( nah, chināmitl ) is a technique used in Mesoamerican agriculture which relies on small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico. They are built up on wetlands of a lake o ...
'', released by
Leo Records
Leo Records is a British record company and label which releases jazz from Russian, American, and British musicians. It concentrates on free jazz.
Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin (also known under his broadcasting name Aleksei Le ...
in 1987, is a recording of Taylor reciting several of his poems while accompanying himself on percussion.
Musical style and legacy
According to Steven Block,
free jazz
Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...
originated with Taylor's performances at the
Five Spot Cafe in 1957 and with
Ornette Coleman
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...
in 1959. In 1964, Taylor co-founded the
Jazz Composers Guild to enhance opportunities for
avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Orig ...
musicians.
[Walden, Daniel, "Black Music and Cultural Nationalism: The Maturation of Archie Shepp", '' Negro American Literature Forum'', Vol. 5, No. 4 (Winter 1971), pp. 150–154. Published by St. Louis University.]
Taylor's style and methods have been described as "
constructivist". Despite
Scott Yanow's warning regarding Taylor's "forbidding music" ("Suffice it to say that Cecil Taylor's music is not for everyone"), he praises Taylor's "remarkable technique and endurance", and his "advanced", "radical", "original", and uncompromising "musical vision".
This musical vision is a large part of Taylor's legacy:
Personal life and death
In 1982, jazz critic
Stanley Crouch
Stanley Lawrence Crouch (December 14, 1945 – September 16, 2020) was an American poet, music and cultural critic, syndicated columnist, novelist, and biographer. He was known for his jazz criticism and his 2000 novel ''Don't the Moon Look ...
wrote that Taylor was gay, prompting an angry response.
In 1991, Taylor told a ''
New York Times'' reporter "
meone once asked me if I was gay. I said, 'Do you think a three-letter word defines the complexity of my humanity?' I avoid the trap of easy definition."
Taylor moved to
Fort Greene, Brooklyn, in 1983.
He died at his Brooklyn residence on April 5, 2018, at the age of 89.
At the time of his death, Taylor was working on an autobiography and future concerts, among other projects.
Discography
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Cecil
1929 births
2018 deaths
African-American jazz pianists
African-American poets
American poets
Antioch College faculty
MacArthur Fellows
Musicians from Queens, New York
Writers from Brooklyn
Free jazz pianists
Kyoto laureates in Arts and Philosophy
New York College of Music alumni
New England Conservatory alumni
Freedom Records artists
Prestige Records artists
Enja Records artists
Blue Note Records artists
Candid Records artists
Avant-garde jazz pianists
Cadence Jazz Records artists
20th-century American pianists
Jazz musicians from New York (state)
American male pianists
American male jazz musicians
People from Fort Greene, Brooklyn
Black Lion Records artists
Leo Records artists
FMP/Free Music Production artists
20th-century American male musicians
Intakt Records artists
20th-century African-American musicians
21st-century African-American people