Cecil Taylor :

‘Lena’

(Jimmy Lyons, alto saxophone; Taylor, piano)

from ‘Live at the Cafe Monmatre’ Fantasy

Take it off! That’s some sad ____, man. In the first place I hear some Charlie Parker cliches . . . They don’t even fit. Is that what the critics are digging? Them critics better stop having coffee. If there ain’t nothing to listen to, they might as well admit it. Just to take something like that and say it’s great, because there ain’t nothing to listen to, that’s like going out and getting a prostitute.

L.F. This man said he was influenced by Duke Ellington.

M.D. I don’t give a ____ ! It must be Cecil Taylor. Right? I don’t care who he’s inspired by. That ____ ain’t nothing. In the first place he don’t have the - you know, the way you touch a piano. he doesn’t have the touch that would make the sound of whatever he thinks of come off.

I can tell he’s influenced by Duke, but to put the loud pedal on the piano and make a run is very old- fashioned to me. And when the alto player sits up there and plays without no tone . . . . That’s the reason I don’t buy any records.