REINFORCED CONCRETE PART 3 / ERZULIE MAKETH SCENT PART 2 / PETHRO VISITING THE ABYSS, AND CHARLES AND THEE / THIRD PART

The main body of my last post on this blog was a long list of unsupported assertions of instances where pieces recur on multiple occasions in Cecil Taylor’s released solo and trio music from 1988-91, organised by album. It is completely beyond my available time and resources to provide analytical justifications for every one of the assertions I made in this list – however, I’m acutely aware of the necessity of backing up my claims with at least a few illustrative examples. The current post is the first attempt to do so, and will seek to demonstrate the following two claims from the list:

1. that the section from 5:31-16:59 of “Reinforced Concrete, Part 3” on IN EAST BERLIN (DISC ONE), the section from 11:06-22:06 of “Erzulie Maketh Scent Part 2” on ERZULIE MAKETH SCENT, and the track “Pethro Visiting The Abyss” on IN FLORESCENCE, are three performances of the same piece;

2. that the track “Third Part” on LOOKING (BERLIN VERSION) THE FEEL TRIO is a (considerably longer) performance of the piece that appears on IN FLORESCENCE under the name “Charles And Thee”.

I’ll present the information in support of these claims in the form of tables with a list of sections identified by letter-names and timings. Note that these are not intended as analyses of the compositional structures of the pieces; but rather of how the structure of each performance relates to the piece of which it is a version. Were I attempting to analyse the compositions themselves, I would probably have avoided breaking them down into quite so many micro-sections and paid rather more attention to continuities; and I would also have employed the letter-names in a way which would have pointed out connections and resemblances between the various components of the pieces (for instance, the close relation between the K and Q motifs in the first of the two pieces under consideration).

I have noted only the entry point of each thematic component, not where it ends – one should be aware that, in any given instance, each segment may be separated from the next (or indeed subjected to internal interruptions) by improvisation of either a developmental or contrasting nature. In the case of immediate repetitions of a given section, I have noted the times of each successive entry on the same line, separated by a slash. “Extended” means that the final part(s) of a given section are repeated in a tag-like fashion; “expanded” means that repetitions are inserted within the body of the section itself. Only thematic material which appears in more than one performance has been noted, and I have not attempted to track the various reminiscences/distortions of the pieces’ thematic material that occur within the more (apparently) improvised portions of the performances.

ANALYSIS TABLE 1: comparison of 5:31-16:59 of “Reinforced Concrete, Part 3” from IN EAST BERLIN (DISC ONE), 11:06-22:06 of “Erzulie Maketh Scent Part 2” from ERZULIE MAKETH SCENT, and “Pethro Visiting The Abyss” from IN FLORESCENCE

	REINFORCED CONCRETE, PART 3	ERZULIE MAKETH SCENT PART 2	PETHRO VISITING THE ABYSS
A	5:31	11:06	0:04
B	5:50	11:19	0:32
C	6:44	11:24 / 13:01	0:41
D	6:52 (incomplete)	13:03 (incomplete)	0:50
C	6:56	13:06	0:59
D	7:00	13:09	1:07
C	7:05
D	7:09
E	7:17	13:41	1:16
F	9:24	15:42	1:58
G	9:36	16:04	2:05
F	9:41		2:10
G	9:46		2:25
H		16:31
I	9:48	17:07	2:32
H	10:08		3:00
J	11:21	18:31 / 19:09	4:03
K	11:34 / 11:39 / 11:42	19:14	4:15 / 4:26
L	11:49	20:08 (extended)	4:35
M	11:58	20:45	4:45
L	12:06 (extended)
M	12:22
N	12:26	20:49	4:50
O	12:28	20:51	4:53
P	12:32	20:59 / 21:04	4:58
Q	12:34	21:09 (incomplete)	5:01
B	13:14
J	14:01		5:37
K	14:11		5:47
J	14:16
K	14:27		6:02
J	14:51
K	15:08
L	15:32		6:06 (extended)
M	15:42 / 15:47		6:30
N	15:55 / 15:57		6:34
O	15:58 / 16:03		6:37
P	16:08 / 16:11		6:41
Q	16:15	21:28	6:44

ANALYSIS TABLE 2: comparision of “Charles And Thee” from IN FLORESCENCE and “Third Part” from LOOKING (BERLIN VERSION) THE FEEL TRIO

	CHARLES AND THEE	LOOKING (BERLIN VERSION) THE FEEL TRIO THIRD PART
A	0:55	0:00
B	1:10	0:10
A		0:49
C	1:43	1:02
D	2:15	1:24
E	2:29	1:46
F	2:41	1:59
G	2:47	2:10
H	3:00 / 3:05	2:22 / 2:36
I	3:09 / 3:17	2:56 / 3:02
J	3:22 / 3:35	3:12 (incomplete) / 3:25 / 3:41 (incomplete)
K	3:45	18:27 (expanded)
L	4:01 / 4:25	20:11 / 20:41
M	4:45	21:00
N	4:58	21:34
O	5:00	21:40
P	5:06	21:57
N	5:27
O	5:31
P	5:36
Q	5:43 / 6:12	26:09 (expanded)
D		28:58
E		29:11 (incomplete)
D		29:19
E		29:24
F		29:41
G		29:54

Suggestions and requests for which of the other claims from the original list it would be most useful/interesting for me to attempt to explicate next would be very welcome.