Cecil Taylor

Pianist-composer Cecil Percival Taylor is one of the most enduring and uncompromising figures of the jazz avant-garde. With a seminal appearance in Greenwich Village in 1957 and releases such as Unit Structures and Conquistador, he established a radical new standard for advanced jazz improvisation. A native of New York City, Taylor garnered critical acclaim as a solo performer in the early 1970s, playing for President Jimmy Carter at the White House and receiving Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships.