Alms/Tiergarten (Spree)

Cecil Taylor’s Berlin residency of June/July 1988 found him seeking connection with an array of European improvisers and free jazz players. He brought 16 of the continent’s best and most forward-looking musicians together, rehearsing them for a week straight before presenting this concert, which consisted of two hour-long pieces, “Involution/Evolution” and “Weight – Breath – Sounding Trees.” Although most of the extended running time of each piece is given over to lengthy solos from Enrico Rava, Tomasz Stanko, Peter Brötzmann, Evan Parker, and drummer Han Bennink, among others, the fanfare-like melodies the ensemble plays as punctuation and section divisions are pure Cecil. The leader mostly stays at the center of the music, letting the horns swirl around him and engaging periodically with dual bassists Peter Kowald and William Parker, as vibraphonist Gunter Hampel adds extra ringing tones to the mix. Best heard with an intermission of at least 15 minutes between pieces; two straight hours of this will be too much for most constitutions. Still, it’s one of the greatest examples of musical maximalism ever laid to tape.