''Olu Iwa'' 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 in Berlin, Germany on April 12, 1986 and released on the

Soul Note Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz. History Black S ...

label. The album features a concert performance by Taylor with

Thurman Barker Thurman Barker (born January 8, 1948, Chicago, Illinois, United States) is an American jazz drummer. Barker's first professional experience was at age sixteen with Mighty Joe Young. Barker took his bachelor's at Empire State College, then studie ...

, William Parker and Steve McCall with Earl McIntyre,

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Early life Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement ...

and Frank Wright added on one track.

Reception

The

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 ...

review by Ron Wynn states "The opening 48-minute dialogue included the high-register wailing of tenor saxophonists Peter Brotzmann and Frank Wright and Taylor's undulating answering lines and sprawling solos. The second piece was a bit shorter..., but no less ambitious, with shifting moods, themes and tempos. As usual, Taylor's music wasn't for the squeamish or those who desire nicely ordered, predictable material. It required intense concentration and attention from both performers and audience".

Gary Giddins Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic and author. He wrote for ''The Village Voice'' from 1973; his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003. In 1986 Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented concerts using a j ...

wrote that on ''Olu Iwa'', Taylor "has a band unified primarily by its rhythm, suggesting at times an Africa-inspired percussion group or a Basie-inspired rhythm section interlude, depending on your frame of reference. Taylor interacts and blends with Thurman Barker on marimba and the ingeniously volatile Steve McCall on drums. Taylor's inherent understanding of jazz's ebullient power comes to the fore in the second half of 'B Ee Ba Nganga Ban'a Eee!' with a paint-peeling solo by Peter Brotzmann and the tailgate slide of Earl McIntyre. The authors of the

Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

commented: "Some of the music... has one reflecting on Taylor's... history: the presence of Barker's marimba harks back to Earl Griffith on the ancient ''Looking Ahead!'', and the small group with horns reminds one of ''Unit Structures''. But the two sprawling pieces here... have moved far on from those days. Alternately hymnal, purgatorial, intensely concentrated and wildly abandoned, the first theme is a carefully organized yet unfettered piece that again disproves Taylor's isolation... The second... is if anything more fervent, with the quartet... playing at full stretch. Another great one."

Track listing

:''All compositions by Cecil Taylor.'' # "B Ee Ba Nganga Ban'a Eee!" - 48:21 # "Olu Iwa (Lord Of Character)" - 27:09 :*Recorded in Berlin, Germany on April 11, 1986

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 ...

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

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 ...

* William Parker: bass * Steve McCall:

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 ...

*Earl McIntyre:

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

(track 1) *

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 ...

tárogató The tárogató (''töröksíp'', ''Turkish pipe''; plural ''tárogatók'' or, anglicized, ''tárogatós''; ro, taragot or ''torogoata'') refers to two different woodwind instruments commonly used in both Hungarian and Romanian folk music. The ...

(track 1) * Frank Wright: tenor saxophone (track 1)

References

{{Cecil Taylor 1987 live albums Cecil Taylor live albums Black Saint/Soul Note live albums