I remember Paul Plimley very vividly from us working together with Cecil Taylor on the score for Legba Crossing in Berlin. We were both members of Cecil Taylor’s Workshop Band, rehearsing in 1988 at the Kongresshalle (also an iconic concrete building). Everyone was so focused and attentive to C.T.
The ensemble had mostly German musicians, but there were musicians from other countries too: Peeter Uuskyla, drums from Sweden; Daniel Werts, oboe from the USA, myself Biggi Vinkeloe from France; and Paul Plimley from Canada; and also Trudy Morse, vocals from the USA.
Daniel Werts, the oboe player, also transcribed the Legba Crossing performance, and added an analysis of the material. Lukas Lindenmaier, the drummer, transcribed Cecil Taylor’s instructions.
Berlin 1988, Legba Crossing on FMP posted on BandCamp, as part of the box set of recordings Cecil Taylor in Berlin ’88.
We rehearsed the piece so many times, I still remember the feeling and the excitement of it. Paul’s piano is distinct and clear. The first sax solo on the extract on Bandcamp is me playing. On this recording, cover, pictured below, the credit calls me Brigitte Vinkeloe.
Cecil Taylor Workshop Ensemble
Legba Crossing (1989)
July 15
Cecil Taylor – director, voice
Sabine Kopf – flute
Daniel Werts – oboe
Brigitte Vinkeloe – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute
Joachim Gies – alto saxophone
Ove Volquartz – soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Heinz-Erich Godecke – trombone
Harald Kimmig – violin
Alexander Frangenheim – bass
Uwe Martin – bass
George Wolf – bass
Paul Plimley – piano
H. Lukas Lindenmaier – drums
Peeter Uuskyla – drums
Trudy Morse – voice
At our first day, Cecil Taylor asked everyone to play a short solo piece – a nerve racking experience. I was so impressed by Paul, his fluidity, his sense of harmony and rhythm. Paul asked always a lot of questions, often the ones that others would have liked to ask but did not dare (true for me, at least).
The days with C.T. were intense and long, but also energizing and wonderful. Paul was the perfect pianist for this ensemble. I remember that I admired the fact that he dared to play and develop his ideas so freely. Even while being so free, Paul managed to stay within the given framework, with the master Cecil Taylor listening to everything with big ears and infallibly pointing out if anyone played outside his compositional intentions.
I also talked recently with Peeter Uuskyla, he and I have been working together since the workshop with Cecil Taylor 1988. He remembers that Paul had attended a workshop for pianists with Cecil Taylor just prior to Legba Crossing. He said that Paul had also attended a workshop with Han Bennink.
These Cecil Taylor recordings are important contributions to music history. Legba Crossing has resurged a few weeks ago, and got a lot of great reviews. I don’t know how often Paul has performed as part of a large ensemble, but this one is really so special. It is the only well documented ensemble conducted by Cecil Taylor himself, and Paul is on the piano.
July 1999 Vancouver International Jazz Festival
The Biggi Vinkeloe Trio was invited by Ken Pickering personally after a concert we did in New York City. Peeter Uuskyla, drums and the master bassist Barre Phillips and myself stayed for a couple of weeks in Vancouver, playing several concerts and leading a workshop. Next, we traveled to Victoria, on Vancouver Island for another concert at the Victoria Jazz Festival. This concert was with the Biggi Vinkeloe Trio featuring Barre Phillips. We did our last concert for the jazz festival in Vancouver, recording as a quartet with bassist Ken Filiano.
We attended many concerts, among those a concert featuring Paul Plimley. I really loved his playing, his virtuosity, his great sense of harmony, his storytelling through the piano.
We did not perform on stage together, but Paul invited us to his home. We spent a day with him, playing, talking, also recalling our time in Berlin 11 years earlier. It did not seem that we had not had so much contact throughout all these years. We found common ground immediately – that is the true magic of connecting through music with each other, it always leaves deep intuitive knowledge about each other that you can always relate to even many years later.
The Bay Area, USA
Lisle Ellis and Paul Plimley have been so close to each other in music and in life. Lisle and I have known each other since I first traveled to the Bay Area in 1996 and we have been very close ever since. This was also one way of getting always news from Paul, and feel connected this way.
Sometimes, Paul would call me in Sweden, sometimes at impossible hours, due to the time difference – and forgetting about it. We had long interesting talks about music, about how to create new music and how to connect on a deep level with each other through improvisation.
I attended a few concerts with Paul and Lisle playing – what a beautiful intense creative duo! I always thought I would love to play with both of them. I did two recordings with Lisle and many concerts.
Here is one example to watch on YouTube
2004 Sweden, in and around Gothenburg
Lisle and Paul had some concerts in Europe and Lisle wanted to seize the opportunity to come to Sweden – finally! I set up a duo concert at the former sugar plant converted into a new art gallery, Röda Sten in Gothenburg, where they performed amid an exhibition and a fashion show. A quite epic experience, for everyone, as it was not the usual stage – audience experience.
I also set up a few concerts for a quartet, with Paul, Lisle, Don Robinson, drums; and myself on sax and flute, among others we performed at the Gothenburg Art Museum.
We performed at the Gothenburg Museum of Art mid-August in front of a large audience. Actually, it was a double bill, with Sten Löfman and his trio, the REV+ (Don, Robinson, Lisle Ellis, myself plus Paul Plimley). This concert was curated by Eld Records / Michael Thorén.
All the pictures are taken by Michael Thorén, sound engineer and label owner, who still had these in his archives.
The next day was spent at Studio Fabriken, a recording studio and linked to the label Eld Records. An intense day, with music created directly in the studio.
Michael Thorén, who captured these photos, was also the studio owner and sound engineer at Studiofabriken. His label was Eld Records. I was associated to the label. But due to rising costs and difficulties with the distribution of the labels’s production, he had to make the tough decision to dissolve his label.
Sten Löfman who is on the picture above and below, is a wonderful and highly skilled pianist, with whom I like to collaborate. He came to listen to the recording and to connect with Paul, they had a lot to talk about (piano and music talk that is)!
Bonnie Wright came along with Lisle Ellis to Sweden. She enjoyed the music and the hang with the musicians. In San Diego, her home city in California, she has a long history of presenting wonderful concerts.
In 2022, the recording made by REV+ in 2004 at Studiofabriken is not yet released. Now, releasing these recordings has become more difficult as it is on an older format tape. The machines to play back these tapes so they can be mixed and mastered are increasingly rare and expensive. Perhaps funding will be found to digitize the recordings that Paul made during his lifetime that are currently locked away in older formats. Then this music can be released and shared.