Cecil Taylor, the attention-hogging musical retard ruins everything except Kenny Dorham's solos. The weak rhythm section can't isolate Taylor to his own sick mind and they allow the beat to be lost many times, especially on Trane's solos. Trane relies heavily on rhythmic support from his bands and succeds best with Philly Joe, Blakey or Elvin. When Trane phases out rhythmically to an etheric haze this band falls apart. KD is like a rhythmic and melodic pile driver saying "oh no, you will not fuck up my solo Cecil." The horn solos are harmonically crippled because they are fighting to stay afloat against the barage of noise attacking them and cutting across the grain of the spirit stream so they can't take chances and innovate. It's definitely a historically interesting recording. An excellent record for Cecil Taylor fans because he is forced to play jazz standards, but can't. Louis Hayes even fucks up his own solo, dropping a beat with nobody else playing. Definitely the worst KD record and the worst Trane album ever. But maybe the best Cecil Taylor record ever by virtue of his bandmates.
:end rant