Cecil Taylor illustration and design by Frank Olinsky, 1974
I’ve been searching for this Cecil Taylor flyer for the 25 years since I misplaced mine. Then, out of nowhere, saxophonist and composer Ras Moshe posted it on his Facebook page.
Well, completely aside from the Cecil of it, I love the illustration. To my eyes, rarely do world class illustrators do justice to jazz musicians, especially of the free jazz variety. Many are just trace-overs of famous photographs, giving us very little fresh about the subject.
Frank Olinsky, a great friend* of mine and an Oblivion OG, was the artist. I introduced Frank to Cecil’s manager at the time, David Laura, to design the vinyl LP labels for “Spring of Two Blue-J’s,” and then this flyer.
My formative years in recording happened at Columbia University’s WKCR-FM, the co-sponsor of this concert; it was where David Laura came looking for someone to record Cecil’s Town Hall concert. I was out of the station by then, but one always has a special feeling for home.
When I was putting together the Oblivion release of “The Return Concert” I asked Frank about the flyer. He didn’t have it either, but did some new work to recreate a version that I eventually used on some posters.
And, not for nothing, it was the period in which I was recording Cecil a lot, most memorably The Return Concert at The Town Hall.
I’ve never met Ras, but I owe him a big “thank you!”
* Frank and I grew up together, went to college in New York City in the same era, and did some spectacular work together over the years, most famously with his co-design of the MTV logo with his partners.
