This is my first follow-up post on the 1978 Cecil Taylor recordings: a broad-strokes analysis of the relationship between “Sperichill On Calling” (from Live At The Black Forest) and “3 Phasis”. Track divisions and timings for 3 Phasis are based on the CD issue.
The opening part of “Sperichill On Calling” is a version of “3 Phasis (Track Four)”. The entry of instruments is slightly different – the ballad theme played by the ensemble at the start of the 3 Phasis track is played by solo piano on “Sperichill On Calling”; and then when the subsequent “shuffle” version of the same material begins on “Sperichill” the horns enter with the theme at 0:35, whereas at the equivalent point on “3 Phasis (Track Four)” (0:45) having played the theme already they move to a contrapuntal development. In both cases however, this quickly develops into a feature for Jimmy Lyons, with Taylor sticking for some time to the chord sequence of the original theme, though Lyons doesn’t ‘blow on the changes’ in any conventional sense, and Ramsey Ameen in particular seemingly plays in a deliberately contradictory manner (both tonally and rhythmically) on both versions. The new theme which enters at 7:58 on “3 Phasis (Track Four”) and which then alternates with further developments of the previous material does not appear in “Sperichill”, which instead proceeds to a feature for Raphe Malik (at 8:17), the beginning of which sounds as if it might derive from composed elements but which I have been unable to trace to any passage from “3 Phasis”.
Following Malik’s trumpet feature, at 13:33 and then again in slightly varied form at 13:41 Taylor plays a descending 3-note octave figure, which occurs in an earlier section (Track Two) of 3 Phasis at 2:19 as the introduction to another distinctive ballad theme. This theme is not played here (yet) – rather its opening harmony forms the initial basis for a feature for Ameen (again, I cannot specifically relate what he plays here to any part of “3 Phasis”). However, “3 Phasis (Track Two)” does turn out to be the basis for the rest of “Sperichill”, as the ensemble passage from 20:36-23:44 develops identical motifs to those found in the “3 Phasis” track from the 4:25 mark onwards (although the order of their initial appearance is different – the motif heard at 20:25 in “Sperichill” first appears in “3 Phasis (Track Two)” at 5:06, whereas the motif that opens the 3 Phasis passage at 4:25 isn’t played in “Sperichill” until 20:49.) Finally, at 23:44 of “Sperichill”, the ballad theme from 2:19 of “3 Phasis (Track Two)” which was hinted at at 13:33 appears in full.
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