Cecil Taylor dances to...

Passion for music is one facet common to both its practitioners and their audiences. If not passion, at least its overbearing presence in our daily lives. In jazz, with so many giant innovators and because its history has often been told as a relay race where the baton would be "influence", there has always been some interest in knowing what our idols listen(ed) to. We know that Miles Davis would listen to anything, including a lot of jazz —as shown in his various blindfold tests— or that Coleman Hawkins hardly listened to any other music than classical at home.

One of those giant innovators would be Cecil Taylor. Admittedly, not everyone's cup of tea, but I think we can agree that he was a monster pianist with an unassailable artistic and personal integrity.

Roaming around the internet, I have found these two photographs, taken by Deborah Feingold:

(Source)

(Source)

Taylor seems to be dancing—which he would do in his performances—in his music room, where besides the piano and a conga drum (under his right arm), there can be seen a lot of LPs, among which three covers can be made out.

In the middle, on the floor, we have Clifford Brown & Max Roach at the Bee Hive (more details on Discogs):

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This is a double LP released by Columbia with live recordings from 1955, the same year when Taylor himself recorded his first album, Jazz Advance (Transition). Its contents are an astounding display of this group stretching out, an essential document despite the rather poor sound; it's worth noting that, by the time this photo was taken (1982 at the earliest), Taylor had already performed and recorded with Roach as a duo.

To our right, on the piano, we have Dinah Washington's After Hours with Miss D. (more details on Discogs):

 

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This is a reissue on the Trip label of recordings originally made for Mercury, in mono, with liner notes by Dan Morgenstern. It also comes from the mid-1950s, as shown on its cover. It's a collection of standards in longish versions, with instrumental solos by Clark Terry, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Paul Quinichette and Junior Mance, among others. Watch out for her reading of "Love for Sale".

Finally, to our left, under the turntable, we can spot Patrice Rushen's Straight from the Heart (more details on Discogs):

Available on YouTube and Spotify

Released in 1982 and possibly just acquired by Taylor, this was one of the hits of that year, especially on the radio and the dance floors. About this, Gary Giddins tells this story about the time, around 1968, when he brought Taylor to perform in Grinnell College, in Iowa.

at one point during a dorm party he asked me what albums I had in my room, so I invited him to come check out my collection. I was really proud of my super hip jazz collection, which he looked at with complete disdain and asked me, "Got any James Brown?" I was crushed.

Even if these photos were staged, with the visible covers well chosen, and given the real possibility that there was music on during the photoshoot, I want to think—and it wouldn't be impossible—that Taylor was dancing to this: