Conquistador!

<i>Conquistador!</i>

Conquistador!

1968 studio album by Cecil Taylor

For other uses, see conquistador (disambiguation).

Conquistador! is a 1968 studio album recorded in 1966 by free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, released by Blue Note Records.[6]

Quick Facts Conquistador!, Studio album by Cecil Taylor ...
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Critical reception

Writing for AllMusic, Scott Yanow gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating that "During the two lengthy pieces, [Jimmy] Lyons' passionate solos contrast with [Bill] Dixon's quieter ruminations while the music in general is unremittingly intense."[3]

The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz awarded the album 4 stars, calling it "an all but flawless record," and commenting: "Dark, difficult, unique, yet operating at an artful tangent to some of the other 'difficult' Blue Note music of the period, this is Taylor at his most devious."[5]

Writing for Vinyl Me Please, Brian Josephs stated: "Conquistador!... swerves away from Unit Structures' fire and evokes the coolness of its cover, which features a turtlenecked Taylor slightly out of focus, hiding behind shades as he mysteriously stares into the distance. The musical elements don’t combust as much as they melt into each other: Horns swell shrilly at the borders to add haunted textures, while Andrew Cyrille's amorphous rhythms tie the masterwork together. Even without Unit Structures as its contrast, Conquistador! still stands as a great testament to this sui generis collective."[7]

In 2008, The New Yorker placed it at number 87 on the "100 Essential Jazz Albums" list.[8]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Cecil Taylor

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes.

References

  1. [1]
    Billboard Mar 9, 1968
  2. [2]
    Fleming, Colin (October 17, 2004). "Cecil Taylor: Conquistador!". All About Jazz. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  3. [3]
    Yanow, Scott. "Conquistador! - Cecil Taylor". AllMusic. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  4. [4]
    Swenson, John, ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 189. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  5. [5]
    Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1381. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  6. [6]
    Murray, Robin (April 6, 2018). "Free Jazz Innovator Cecil Taylor Has Died". Clash. Archived from the original on April 6, 2018. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  7. [7]
    Josephs, Brian (September 12, 2018). "A Cecil Taylor Primer". Vinyl Me Please. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  8. [8]
    Remnick, David (May 19, 2008). "100 Essential Jazz Albums". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on September 5, 2014. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
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