This is a most unusual LP due to the inclusion of
Cecil Taylor on piano. Although
Taylor and
John Coltrane got along well, trumpeter
Kenny Dorham (who is also on this quintet date) hated the avant-garde pianist's playing and was clearly bothered by
Taylor's dissonant comping behind his solos. With bassist
Chuck Israels and drummer
Louis Hayes doing their best to ignore the discord, the group manages to perform two blues and two standards with
Dorham playing strictly bop,
Taylor coming up with fairly free abstractions, and
Coltrane sounding somewhere in between. The results are unintentionally fascinating. ~ Scott Yanow