
Mike Taylor Trio for Columbia Lansdowne from 1967.
Mike Taylor - Piano ; Jack Bruce / Ron Rubin - Bass ; John Hiseman - Drums.
This was reissued as part of the Impressed Repressed series on cd and is now well out of print with the only one on Amazon for sale at £140.The original lp still goes for a wallet pounding £3-600 due to it's rarity and of course it's one of Denis Preston's stellar productions for the famous Lansdowne series so you know that's a real seal of quality.Certainly one of the most challenging and powerful jazz recordings of it's time.
Here's a review from John Fordham:
Mike Taylor died, probably by his own hand, at age 31 in 1969, having realised a fraction of his potential as a composer and player, and written for the New Jazz Orchestra, singer Norma Winstone and the rock band Cream. Cream's singer and bassist Jack Bruce and Ron Rubin (occasionally) are on acoustic bass here, with Jon Hiseman on drums, a line-up that highlights the close links between 1960s Britain's creative rock and R&B scenes and the jazz of the time.
Taylor is a highly rhythmic pianist whose dense chord clusters often travel in tandem with Hiseman's sensitive and flexible percussion. His handling of standards such as All the Things You Are is enigmatically fascinating, while his own rhapsodically wayward Just a Blues is a lot more than just a blues. And the improvisation against Hiseman's brushes and Bruce's emphatically voluble bass on While My Lady Sleeps is the kind of extended long narrative on a standard that Bill Evans was feted for.
A unique and very affecting set.
First time out in blogland and you know it's gotta be .....All Killer No Filler!

22 comments:
cd rip:
http://rapidshare.com/files/375814666/Mike_Taylor.rar
Have tried to upload this to mediafire three times in the last hour with no success.
i'm very happy that i can upgrade my 128 version to a better one for this formidable trio, thank you
Thanks Bacoso. This is excellent. It is too bad that things ended so ignominiously for Taylor, homeless and largely forgotten, scrambled by drugs. He drowned in the Thames after three years of homelessness. That peace and brotherhood idealism of the 60's didn't always work. So it goes.
Taylor's piano playing is very fine on this well recorded album. John Hiseman's drumming is flawless.
Jack Bruce does a fine job in a supporting role on acoustic bass (rather than competing with Clapton for dominance on electric). I would never have guessed it was him.
Bruce's album Songs For A Tailor was dedicated to a recently deceased clothing designer that had done work for Cream. But one can't help but wonder if Mike Taylor was also being remembered as well.
Taylor's co-wrote Those Were The Days and Passing The Time for Cream, as well as the harder to like tune Pressed Rat And Warthog.
This album is a nice find. Thanks again.
Thanks Bacoso and thank you commentators also.
Thanks for the share! Looking forward to this one...
Bacoso, I got that Emphasis on a zip if you're interested.
Nnnnice!!!
thank you for the great share!
Thanks a ton.
F
Thank you so much for your generosity.
tsw-Emphasis-yes please!
A great discovery for me - thanks Bacoso!
heard about it, but never heard it; looking forward to it. If you don't already know it, Jack Bruce's album 'Things We Like' c.1968 also featuring Hiseman (plus McLaughlin & Heckstall-Smith) is also a great straight-ahead jazz record.
This period in UK music was fascinating. It was the real Fusion, musicians would jump with no problem from Jazz to rock to blues to prog sometime on the same album, or even in the same song ... and the public loved it! Try that now!!!
Thank you Bacoso!
Oh man....this is extra scarce--been looking for ages.
Musically up there with Things We Like and McLaughlin's Extrapolation. Ridiculous. Many many thanks.
Thanks. Love this period
Niiiice!!!!! tahnks a lot
Many, many thanks for this album! Great sounds from a great group!
Karl K.
McKinney, Texas
thank you, bacoso. i truly hope you get all the good karma points that should be headed your way.
Hi, if anyone should have a mediafire link for this I'd really appreciate it, thanks.
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