Chinampas (album)

Chinampas is a solo album by Cecil Taylor recorded in London on November 16 & 17, 1987 and released on the Leo label.

Contents

• Chinampas 5 04 cecil taylor
• Chinampas 3 43 cecil taylor
• Track listing
• Personnel
• References

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek states "Chinampas is a true oddity in avant jazz pianist/poet/dancer Cecil Taylor's voluminous catalog. This is a spoken word record of Taylor reciting his poetry while accompanying himself on timpani, bells, and small percussion. To address what these poems are about is a meaningless endeavor. It would be the same as trying to explain what his piano playing is about. It's all language; it's all music. In fact, these poems, studio recorded beautifully in the fall of 1987, tell the story of Taylor's approach to making music, creating solid matter from thin air, and then — like the true shaman that he is — transforming it into sand and blowing it away to make room for something else... This is an hourlong record that can not only keep the listener's attention, but can also bring the listener to restful sleep. It is at turns maddening and soothing, and ultimately instructive. In Chinampas (an Aztec word that means "floating garden"), it means that everything is fluid, everything is interconnected, and language — if it extends itself far enough — has the power to embrace it all. As an artist Mr. Taylor has gone where few have gone before him, let alone succeeded; this is what he is used to. But he may have surprised even himself in the sheer musicality of his mystical universal tome".