Culled from a previously unknown recording, Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance; July 11, 2025) captures a budding musical collaboration between an immensely important pianist in the pantheon of avant-garde greats and a renowned jazz drummer. Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley were just roughly seven weeks from their first encounter when they performed a totally improvised set to an appreciative audience at the Outside In Festival in Crawley, UK on September 3, 1988.
Leaf Palm Hand was that first encounter; it happened as part of the massive, transcendent series of Berlin performances honoring Taylor during a triumphant month-long residency there in July 1988 which put him together with a massive array of European jazz luminaries in all sorts of configurations. That included one-on-one encounters with several drummers, and all of them created sparks with Taylor. But the partnership with Tony Oxley proved to be the most enduring.
They two performed as a duet on and off to virtually the end of Taylor’s life in 2018. They added bassist William Parker shortly after the Berlin event to form the Feel Trio, and as a piano/drums/trumpet trio with Bill Dixon in the early aughts. Oxley played in other, larger Taylor ensembles, too. Surely, something between them clicked, and it clicked instantly.
Taylor famously adjusted his piano attack to the attack of his drummer which is why virtually every drummer seemed a good fit for the avant-garde superstar: oftentimes he was the one fitting with the drummer. At the same time, Oxley was more attuned to Taylor mode of expression, he simply understood it instinctively.
The major piece of the set, “Flashing Sets,” follows this pattern even though Taylor goes first and the two engage in a delicate, probing dance. The vivid expression and liberating flow of Leaf Palm Hand is fully present here: Oxley, a master of timbral manipulation, sketches out his art on a tonal canvas and Taylor instantly tracks down the harmonic components implied and acts as an extension of the drum kit. The two ratchet up the intensity at an incremental pace, and Taylor’s swift runs begin to take over.
During this time, Taylor is still spontaneously composing, almost like a sped-up, fully formed classical piece. Oxley, now going at a furious pace, nonetheless dials back the density of his drumming to give his counterpart the air needed to breathe. Neither of them ever quit over thirty-eight minutes trying to get their respective instruments to relinquish more. And like some invisible switch, they together take the din down to a tranquility full of considered, contemplative figures followed by another build-up.
The four-minute encore that follows demonstrates the pair’s ability to streamline development with cunning precision.
Flashing Spirits gives us another glimpse into this special musical alliance between two masters of improvised music during a time when the two were just getting to know each other. At an artistic level, they already knew each other intimately.
Pre-order/Order Flashing Spirits over at Bandcamp.
*** Cecil Taylor CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Soft Machine – ‘Thirteen’ (2026) - March 4, 2026
- Devin Gray – ‘Hz Of Gold‘ (2026) - March 2, 2026
- Triple Blind – ‘Cold Walk’ (2026) - February 27, 2026
