For Cecil Taylor: A Research-Creation and Paracritical Approach to Analyzing Free Music

Abstract

This creative dissertation offers a new method for analyzing Free Music (sometimes referred to as Free Jazz, Free Improvisation and Creative Music). With the musician-poet-dancer Cecil Taylor as a case study, the analysis uses a hypothetical double bass audition for Taylor’s ensemble (The Unit) to discover what traits Taylor would have desired in a bassist to more fully understand his musical aesthetic. The dissertation is comprised of six chapters. The first outlines the theoretical framework of the dissertation used to explore Taylor’s music: feminist research-creation and paracritical writing (Mackey 2018). The second chapter situates the dissertation within Cecil Taylor studies. Chapters three and four are the analyses of Taylor’s music itself, and the fifth contains the author’s poems followed by an open-ended conclusion. Chapter three begins the analysis with an explanation of how Taylor’s method of making music (Unit Structures) functions. This chapter also includes audio examples demonstrating the author’s interpretation of approaches to Taylor’s music on the double bass. Chapter four, “Letters to Cecil,” consists of hypothetical letters written to Taylor that are inspired by poet-scholar Nathaniel Mackey’s letter format from his From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate. These letters serve as the theoretical gloss that pairs with the author’s musical tracks, and together comprise the audition for Taylor’s unit. They also serve as a speculative approach to understanding both the poetics and aesthetics of his music: Percussive School of Double Bass, Bowing as Breath, Duende, Being Astral in and all Registers, and Dancing. The dissertation ends with the author’s own poems titled “For Cecil Taylor: Before and Around Midnight” that are inspired by Taylor and Mackey’s poetry. The letters, therefore, explore major themes the author has found in Taylor’s music as derived from close engagement with Taylor’s music and poetry.