Historic Concerts

Historic Concerts is a live album by Cecil Taylor and Max Roach recorded at the McMillin Theatre, Columbia University, NYC on December 15, 1979, and released on the Soul Note label in 1984. Despite the inaccurate plural title, the entire album is just one single show. The album features solo and duet performances by Taylor and Roach and the later CD reissue adds interviews recorded after the concert.

Years later, Taylor reflected: "It was a phenomenon, playing with Mr Roach in front of all those people. Ten thousand of them listening to two of us. It was as if two angry prophets had finally managed to get together a crowd. We maybe wondered for a moment whether it would be more eloquent to stay quiet!"

On June 4, 2000, Taylor and Roach reunited at Columbia for a performance during the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival.