The Cecil Taylor Audiovisual Collection consists of 74 videocassettes in VHS and Betamax, as well as Mini-DVs of performances, workshops, interviews, and talks that took place between 1984 and 2009 and which were acquired by Blank Forms after the creator’s death. While most of the material is otherwise unpublished and commercially unavailable, there are copies of documentaries Inside Out in the Open (Alan Roth, 2001) and The Way of Cecil Taylor (2002; cf. All The Notes). Like the CTA audiotape collection, Taylor’s groups are represented in both one-off and regularly working scenarios (notably with Tony Oxley and William Parker), as are solo performances and sessions with trumpeter Bill Dixon. Several non-Taylor tapes are part of the collection, including footage of Duke Ellington and Austrian pianist Dieter Glawischnig.

Two tapes depict Taylor’s duo with Japanese Butoh dancer Min Tanaka, a consistent relationship that culminated in two performances at the Whitney Museum’s Open Plan: Cecil Taylor in 2016 (among the last occasions that the pianist performed in public). Footage is present of their duo in a street performance in SoHo on Mercer Street in 1994 and in Yokohama in 1988, and depicts this notable inter-media collaboration. Taylor’s poetic work is also included, both in a solo reading and with Clark Coolidge at the Poetry Project.

As with the audiotape collection, a large number of video recordings of Taylor’s residency at the Turtle Bay Music School are present and provide a window into his workshop process. His frequent appearances at the Knitting Factory in both its Houston Street and Tribeca locations are also part of this series, including both smaller Unit and large orchestra performances.

All tapes were digitized by George Blood Audio in 2021 and digital files of these tapes can be accessed by request.