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{{Infobox album
| name = Unit Structures
| type = studio
| artist = [[Cecil Taylor]]
| cover = Cecil Taylor-Unit Structures (album cover).jpg
| border = yes
| alt =
| released = October 1966<ref>{{cite magazine |author= |date=October 22, 1966 |title=New Album Releases |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6igEAAAAMBAJ&dq=billboard+jazz+%22unit+structures%22+%221966%22&pg=PA66 |magazine=Billboard |page=66 |access-date=August 10, 2021}}</ref>
| recorded = May 19, 1966
| studio = [[Van Gelder Studio]] ([[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey]])
| genre = [[Free jazz]]
| length = {{Duration|m=46|s=27}}<br />{{Duration|m=56|s=38}} (CD reissue)
| label = [[Blue Note Records|Blue Note]]
| producer = [[Alfred Lion]]
| prev_title = [[Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come]]
| prev_year = 1962
| next_title = [[Conquistador!]]
| next_year = 1966
}}
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{rating|5|5}}<ref name=allmusic>{{Cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/unit-structures-mw0000193906|title=Unit Structures - Cecil Taylor|work=[[AllMusic]]|first=Scott|last=Yanow|author-link=Scott Yanow|access-date=January 24, 2018}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[DownBeat]]''
| rev2Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>[[Down Beat]]: February 23, 1967 vol. 34, no. 4</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz]]''
| rev3score = {{rating|3.5|4}}<ref name="Penguin"/>
| rev4 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide]]''
| rev4score = {{rating|5|5}}<ref name=RSJRG>{{Cite book|editor-last=Swenson|editor-first=J.|year=1985|title=[[The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide]]|publisher=Random House/Rolling Stone|location=US|isbn=0-394-72643-X|pages=189}}</ref>
}}
'''''Unit Structures''''' is a studio album by American jazz pianist [[Cecil Taylor]], released in October 1966 by [[Blue Note Records]].

==Background==
''Unit Structures'' was Taylor's first album on Blue Note; he would record ''[[Conquistador!]]'' for the label later the same year with a similar lineup, although it was not released until 1968.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Morton |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |date=April 2004 |issue=242 |title=The Primer: Cecil Taylor |magazine=[[The Wire (magazine)|The Wire]] |pages=48–49}}</ref> Jesse Jarnow of ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' described ''Unit Structures'' as "among the most intense of the early [[free jazz]] albums".<ref name=Pitchfork>{{cite web|url=http://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-1960s/?page=1|title=The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s|page=1|work=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]|date=August 22, 2017|access-date=January 24, 2018}}</ref>

The album was accompanied by an essay written by Taylor entitled "Sound Structure of Subculture Becoming Major Breath/Naked Fire Gesture".{{sfn|Bartlett|1995|p=276}}

== Music ==
The album has been referred to as "among the most intense of the early free jazz albums." According to Jesse Jarnow of ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'': "The album is by no means [[easy listening]]; the [[atonality]] is unrepentant. But Taylor’s septet finds numerous gorgeous spaces as they interpret “free jazz” not just as the freedom to [[Jazz improvisation|improvise]] but the freedom to invent musical worlds and hidden [[Syntax|syntaxes]]. The only way to tap into the 'rhythm-sound energy found in the [[amplitude]] of each time unit,' as Taylor wrote in the liner notes, is to listen reverently."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Pitchfork |date=2017-08-22 |title=The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-1960s/ |access-date=2025-06-13 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Critical reception and legacy==
''[[AllMusic]]'' gave the album five stars, with reviewer [[Scott Yanow]] opining that "Taylor's high-energy [[Atonality|atonalism]] fit in well with the free jazz of the period but he was actually leading the way rather than being part of a movement...it could be safely argued that no jazz music of the era approached the ferocity and intensity of Cecil Taylor's".<ref name=allmusic/> ''[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz]]'' awarded it three and a half stars of a possible four, writing: "''Unit Structures'' is both as mathematically complex as its title suggests and as rich in colour and sound as the ensemble proposes, with the orchestrally varied sounds of the two bassists — [[Henry Grimes|Grimes]] a strong, elemental driving force, [[Alan Silva|Silva]] tonally fugitive and mysterious — while [[Eddie Gale|Stevens]] and [[Makanda Ken McIntyre|McIntyre]] add other hues and [[Jimmy Lyons|Lyons]] improvises with and against them."<ref name="Penguin">{{Cite book|first1=Richard|last1=Cook|author-link1=Richard Cook (journalist)|first2=Brian|last2=Morton|author-link2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer)|title=[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD]]|edition=7th|publisher=Penguin Books|year=2004}}</ref>

In 2008, webzine ''[[Cokemachineglow]]'' included ''Unit Structures'' on their "30 'Other' Albums of the 1960s" list.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cokemachineglow.com/category/30-other-albums-of-the-1960s/|title=30 "Other" Albums of the 1960s (page 1 of 3)|work=[[Cokemachineglow]]|date=July 5, 2008|access-date=January 24, 2018}}</ref> In 2013, ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' included it on their "Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s" list.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spin.com/2013/03/best-100-albums-1960s-sixties-alternative-list/130327-cecil-taylor/|title=The Top 100 Alternative Albums of the 1960s (page 22 of 101)|work=[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]|date=March 28, 2013|access-date=August 14, 2018}}</ref> In 2017, ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' placed it at number 197 on their list of the "200 Best Albums of the 1960s".<ref name=Pitchfork/>

In 2017, Jesse Jarnow of ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' wrote: "''Unit Structures'' still challenges notions of musical freedom. Recorded during the same season that the psychedelic ballroom scene was starting to bubble in San Francisco, ''Unit Structures'' did more to disassemble music than nearly all of the light-show-drenched psychedelia that followed."<ref name=":0" />

==Track listing==
{{Track listing
| all_writing = [[Cecil Taylor]]
| title1 = Steps
| length1 = 10:20
| title2 = Enter, Evening
| length2 = 11:06
| title3 = Enter, Evening (Alternate Take)
| note3 = CD edition bonus track
| length3 = 10:11
| title4 = Unit Structure/As of a Now/Section
| length4 = 17:47
| title5 = Tales (8 Whisps)
| length5 = 7:14
}}

==Personnel==
Credits adapted from liner notes.<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Unit Structures |others=[[Cecil Taylor]] |type=liner notes |year=1987 |publisher=[[Blue Note Records|Blue Note]] |id=CDP 7 84237 2}}</ref>
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-2}}
;Performers
* [[Eddie Gale]] – trumpet
* [[Jimmy Lyons]] – alto saxophone
* [[Makanda Ken McIntyre|Ken McIntyre]] – alto saxophone, oboe, bass clarinet
* [[Cecil Taylor]] – piano, bells
* [[Henry Grimes]] – double bass
* [[Alan Silva]] – double bass
* [[Andrew Cyrille]] – drums
{{Col-2}}
;Production and additional personnel
* [[Alfred Lion]] – producer
* [[Rudy Van Gelder]] – recording engineer
* [[Francis Wolff]] – photography
* [[Reid Miles]] – design
* [[Cecil Taylor]] – liner notes
* [[Michael Cuscuna]] – reissue producer (1987 CD reissue)
* Ron McMaster – digital transfer (1987 CD reissue)
{{col-end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

* {{cite journal |jstor=833708|title=Cecil Taylor, Identity Energy, and the Avant-Garde African American Body|journal=[[Perspectives of New Music]]|volume=33|issue=1/2|pages=274–293|last1=Bartlett|first1=Andrew W.|year=1995}}

==External links==
* {{Discogs master|43554|Unit Structures}}

{{Cecil Taylor}}
{{Makanda Ken McIntyre}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1966 albums]]
[[Category:Blue Note Records albums]]
[[Category:Cecil Taylor albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Alfred Lion]]
[[Category:Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio]]

Unit Structures - Revision history

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