he World of Cecil Taylor is an album by Cecil Taylor recorded for the Candid label

in October 1960. The album features performances by Taylor with Archie Shepp, Buell
Neidlinger and Denis Charles. Alternate takes from these sessions were released on
Air in 1987. A 1971 reissue of the original album on the Barnaby label was also
titled Air.

Some of the tracks the pianist chose to release on this album were improvised,
single-take pieces, while others were the result of multiple takes. The track
titled "Air" required 29 takes before being approved by Taylor.[1]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide [3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings [4]
In a review for AllMusic, Brian Olewnick wrote: "One can only imagine what the
reaction of the average jazz fan was in 1960 when this session was recorded. This
is a wonderful document from early in Taylor's career, when he was midway between
modernist approaches to standard material and his own radical experiments that
would come to full fruition a few years hence... What's extra amazing is how deeply
entrenched the blues feel and pulse are in this music, already bound for the
further reaches of abstraction. They never left Taylor, although many listeners
have difficulty discerning them. This session, which has been released under
numerous guises, is an especially fine introduction to his work, keeping enough of
a foot in 'traditional' jazz forms to offer one purchase while dangling
breathtaking visions of the possible within one's reach. A classic recording that
belongs in anyone's collection."[2]

Matt Groom, writing for Presto Jazz, commented: "What makes this particular album
so fascinating is that we can actually hear the sound of bebop being stretched and
ripped apart from inside, as if it's one of the Incredible Hulk's unfortunate t-
shirts... The World of... still makes sense as a satisfying jazz album, aided in no
small part by Buell Neidlinger's bass which keeps things tethered to a familiar
harmonic framework... Taylor famously once said that his approach to the piano was
to view it as 'eighty-eight tuned drums', which is exactly what we get here... It’s
terrific fun, honest!"[5]