JAZZ REVIEW : Sound to Think About From Cecil Taylor

There were no familiar tunes, no 4-to-the-bar rhythms, or, for that matter, no discernible bars as Cecil Taylor, the pianist whose very name embodies the remaining spirit of the avant-garde of jazz, took to the stage of the Catalina Bar & Grill on Tuesday evening for a six-night engagement.

Taylor, whose musical ventures over the last 30 years have made him the most enduring of the “outside” players, began his set with a low rumbling that grew in moments to a frenetic phantasmagoria of sound that challenged the intellect, stoked the fires of imagination and stirred the soul. At once, his unceasing, hourlong deluge of breathtaking leaps and jumps up and down the Steinway seemed the product of superior thinking and the basest of primordial urges.

Adding to the transfixing caldron of sound were bassist William Parker and drummer Tony Oxley, both of whom proved themselves worthy of the unorthodox challenge of their leader’s music. More than most trios playing the familiar changes of the standard repertoire, this one breathed as a single unit--its seeming disparity of direction actually creating a brilliant, singular motion.

The soft-spoken iconoclast approached the piano as a boxer might greet an opponent. Breast-length dreadlocks swayed in violent motion around his bobbing head as he sparred with the keyboard--jabbing, stabbing, hooking and roundhousing with intense severity. Indeed, during even the quietest moments of his improvisation, a jackhammer technique that would earn him a crack across the knuckles from any music teacher remained forcefully intact.

As fascinating as his music was the reaction to it. There is the hipness factor, of course. Like not watching Cosby. Taylor’s music is acid for the non-chemical crowd. It’s close-your-eyes and throw-back-your-head stuff for worshipers supplicating humbly before their idol.

But there is extraordinary beauty in the 16-speed chaos of Taylor’s creations. He has laid waste to the traditional notions of time, melody and harmony, as he parodies the tenets of his own expression. His themes are sparse and difficult to discern, yet he imaginatively captures attention as he leaves one wondering about each thematic snippet: Is each a topic sentence begging for further explanation? Or is the totality of his art a manipulative exercise in cynicism?

Listeners have through Sunday night to have those questions posed.