release date: 11.07.2025 via Burning Ambulance Music
Burning Ambulance Music will release a previously unknown archival live performance from pianist Cecil Taylor and drummer Tony Oxley, Flashing Spirits, July 11, 2025. Flashing Spirits was recorded September 3, 1988, at the Outside In Festival in Crawley, UK. It consists of a 38-minute piece, followed by two encores.
Taylor and Oxley first played together less than three months before this encounter, on July 17, 1988. That performance was released as Leaf Palm Hand and included in the legendary In Berlin ’88 boxed set. In 1989, they were joined by bassist William Parker in a group they called the Feel Trio, which lasted into 1990 and released Looking, Celebrated Blazons, and the 10CD box 2 Ts For A Lovely T.
Taylor and Oxley performed together until the end of the pianist’s life. They teamed up with trumpeter Bill Dixon for several concerts in the early 2000s; continued to work as a duo; and reunited the Feel Trio with special guest Anthony Braxton in 2007. When Taylor made his final public appearances at the Whitney Museum in April 2016, Oxley was part of two of the three ensembles that performed.
Other Taylor/Oxley duo releases include Ailanthus/Altissima: Bilateral Dimensions of 2 Root Songs (Triple Point, 2010); Conversations With Tony Oxley (Jazzwerkstaat, 2018); and Birdland, Neuburg 2011 (Fundacja Słuchaj, 2020).
Ben Watson of The Wire wrote of the performance heard on Flashing Spirits: “Cecil Taylor’s greatness resides in convincing the listener that any problems encountered in appreciating his music are nothing to do with the pianist…What keeps you listening — trying once more to penetrate the high-energy assaults — is the unique authority, a survivor’s integrity…He interrogates the keyboard as if he cannot believe it will not yield more.”
This album is released in collaboration with Leo Feigin, founder of legendary avant-garde label Leo Records. The music was mastered by Kurt Glück in March 2025. Flashing Spirits will be released on July 11, 2025 digitally and as a limited edition of 500 CDs in heavy-duty gatefold mini-LP sleeves printed on textured paper, with artwork by Burning Ambulance Music co-founder I.A. Freeman