Unit Structures

Unit Structures
Unit Structures
Studio album by Cecil Taylor
Released	October 1966
Recorded	May 19, 1966
Studio	Van Gelder Studio (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey)
Genre	Free jazz
Length	46:27; 56:38 (CD reissue)
Label	Blue Note
Producer	Alfred Lion
Cecil Taylor chronology

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
DownBeat	^[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	^[4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	^[5]

Unit Structures is a studio album by American jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, released in October 1966 by Blue Note Records.

Background

Unit Structures was Taylor's first album on Blue Note; he would record Conquistador! for the label later the same year with a similar lineup, although it was not released until 1968.^[6] The album was accompanied by an essay written by Taylor entitled "Sound Structure of Subculture Becoming Major Breath/Naked Fire Gesture".^[7]

Music

Jesse Jarnow of Pitchfork described Unit Structures as "among the most intense of the early free jazz albums".^[8] He continued: "The album is by no means easy listening; the atonality is unrepentant. But Taylor’s septet finds numerous gorgeous spaces as they interpret “free jazz” not just as the freedom to improvise but the freedom to invent musical worlds and hidden syntaxes. The only way to tap into the 'rhythm-sound energy found in the amplitude of each time unit,' as Taylor wrote in the liner notes, is to listen reverently."^[9]

Critical reception and legacy

AllMusic gave the album five stars, with reviewer Scott Yanow opining that "Taylor's high-energy atonalism fit in well with the free jazz of the period but he was actually leading the way rather than being part of a movement...it could be safely argued that no jazz music of the era approached the ferocity and intensity of Cecil Taylor's".^[2] The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded it three and a half stars of a possible four, writing: "Unit Structures is both as mathematically complex as its title suggests and as rich in colour and sound as the ensemble proposes, with the orchestrally varied sounds of the two bassists — Grimes a strong, elemental driving force, Silva tonally fugitive and mysterious — while Stevens and McIntyre add other hues and Lyons improvises with and against them."^[4]

In 2008, webzine Cokemachineglow included Unit Structures on their "30 'Other' Albums of the 1960s" list.^[10] In 2013, Spin included it on their "Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s" list.^[11] In 2017, Pitchfork placed it at number 197 on their list of the "200 Best Albums of the 1960s".^[8]

In 2017, Jesse Jarnow of Pitchfork wrote: "Unit Structures still challenges notions of musical freedom. Recorded during the same season that the psychedelic ballroom scene was starting to bubble in San Francisco, Unit Structures did more to disassemble music than nearly all of the light-show-drenched psychedelia that followed."^[9]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Cecil Taylor.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Steps"	10:20
2.	"Enter, Evening"	11:06
3.	"Enter, Evening (Alternate Take)" (CD edition bonus track)	10:11
4.	"Unit Structure/As of a Now/Section"	17:47
5.	"Tales (8 Whisps)"	7:14

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.^[12]

Performers

Eddie Gale – trumpet
Jimmy Lyons – alto saxophone
Ken McIntyre – alto saxophone, oboe, bass clarinet
Cecil Taylor – piano, bells
Henry Grimes – double bass
Alan Silva – double bass
Andrew Cyrille – drums

Production and additional personnel

Alfred Lion – producer
Rudy Van Gelder – recording engineer
Francis Wolff – photography
Reid Miles – design
Cecil Taylor – liner notes
Michael Cuscuna – reissue producer (1987 CD reissue)
Ron McMaster – digital transfer (1987 CD reissue)

References

^ "New Album Releases". Billboard. October 22, 1966. p. 66. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
^ ^a ^b Yanow, Scott. "Unit Structures - Cecil Taylor". AllMusic. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
^ Down Beat: February 23, 1967 vol. 34, no. 4
^ ^a ^b Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2004). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (7th ed.). Penguin Books.
^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. US: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 189. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
^ Morton, Brian (April 2004). "The Primer: Cecil Taylor". The Wire. No. 242. pp. 48–49.
^ Bartlett 1995, p. 276.
^ ^a ^b "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". Pitchfork. August 22, 2017. p. 1. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
^ ^a ^b Pitchfork (August 22, 2017). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 13, 2025.
^ "30 "Other" Albums of the 1960s (page 1 of 3)". Cokemachineglow. July 5, 2008. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
^ "The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s (page 22 of 101)". Spin. March 28, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
^ Unit Structures (liner notes). Cecil Taylor. Blue Note. 1987. CDP 7 84237 2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)

Bartlett, Andrew W. (1995). "Cecil Taylor, Identity Energy, and the Avant-Garde African American Body". Perspectives of New Music. 33 (1/2): 274–293. JSTOR 833708.

External links

Unit Structures at Discogs (list of releases)

[1] "New Album Releases". Billboard. October 22, 1966. p. 66. Retrieved August 10, 2021.

[allmusic-2] Yanow, Scott. "Unit Structures - Cecil Taylor". AllMusic. Retrieved January 24, 2018.

[3] Down Beat: February 23, 1967 vol. 34, no. 4

[Penguin-4] Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2004). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD (7th ed.). Penguin Books.

[RSJRG-5] Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. US: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 189. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.

[6] Morton, Brian (April 2004). "The Primer: Cecil Taylor". The Wire. No. 242. pp. 48–49.

[FOOTNOTEBartlett1995276-7] Bartlett 1995, p. 276.

[Pitchfork-8] "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". Pitchfork. August 22, 2017. p. 1. Retrieved January 24, 2018.

[:0-9] Pitchfork (August 22, 2017). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 13, 2025.

[10] "30 "Other" Albums of the 1960s (page 1 of 3)". Cokemachineglow. July 5, 2008. Retrieved January 24, 2018.

[11] "The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s (page 22 of 101)". Spin. March 28, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2018.

[12] Unit Structures (liner notes). Cecil Taylor. Blue Note. 1987. CDP 7 84237 2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)

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v t e Cecil Taylor
Discography
Studio albums	Jazz Advance Looking Ahead! Stereo Drive Love for Sale The World of Cecil Taylor Air Cell Walk for Celeste Jumpin' Punkins New York City R&B Unit Structures Conquistador! Cecil Taylor Unit 3 Phasis Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants) Chinampas In Florescence Momentum Space
Live albums	At Newport Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come Student Studies Praxis The Great Concert of Cecil Taylor Indent Akisakila Solo Spring of Two Blue J's Silent Tongues Dark to Themselves Air Above Mountains Live in the Black Forest One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye Historic Concerts It Is in the Brewing Luminous Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! Fly! The Eighth Garden Iwontunwonsi Amewa For Olim Olu Iwa Live in Bologna Live in Vienna Tzotzil/Mummers/Tzotzil In East Berlin Regalia The Hearth Alms/Tiergarten (Spree) Remembrance Pleistozaen Mit Wasser Spots, Circles, and Fantasy Legba Crossing Erzulie Maketh Scent Leaf Palm Hand Looking (Berlin Version) Solo Looking (Berlin Version) The Feel Trio Looking (Berlin Version) Corona Celebrated Blazons 2 Ts for a Lovely T CT: The Dance Project Double Holy House Nailed Melancholy The Tree of Life Always a Pleasure The Light of Corona Almeda Qu'a: Live at the Iridium, Vol. 1 Qu'a Yuba: Live at the Iridium, Vol. 2 Lifting the Bandstand Algonquin Incarnation The Willisau Concert The Owner of the River Bank All the Notes Taylor/Dixon/Oxley The Last Dance
Compilations	Mixed

v t e Ken McIntyre
Years given are for the recording(s), not first release.
As leader or co-leader	Stone Blues (1960) Looking Ahead (and Eric Dolphy, 1960) Year of the Iron Sheep (1962) Hindsight (1974) Home (1975) Open Horizon (1975) Introducing the Vibrations (1976) Chasing the Sun (1978)
With others	Don't Look Back (Nat Adderley, 1976) Honi Gordon Sings (1962) The Montreal Tapes: Liberation Music Orchestra (Charlie Haden, 1989) Dream Keeper (Charlie Haden, 1990) Unit Structures (Cecil Taylor, 1966)