_Michael Hoefner_

Cecil Taylor, a iconic pianist that was known for his emphatic playing style and spot at the vanguard of the free jazz movement, passed away yesterday in his Brooklyn home at the age of 89, NPR confirmed earlier today.

Taylor was born in Queens in 1929 and was classically trained at the New York College of Music and the New England Conservatory. Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, his energetic, improvisational free jazz style gained him recognition in the jazz world and led to a extensive career that saw the pianist release a long list of studio and live albums up until the late-aughts.

As NPR notes, Taylor once equated his goal as a performer to the way he felt upon seeing Billie Holliday sing for the first time: “The first thing you saw on the left side of her head was these gardenias. The gloves, white, came above her elbow. The body all in white. The fur flowing. And when she started to sing, the right elbow would be bent, and the left leg dipped. And I said, ‘Whoa.’ And the next day I said to myself in my kitchen, ‘What that woman did to me, if I ever grow up, that’s what I’d like to do to the audience.’”

For a taste of Taylor’s playing style, watch a couple videos of the pianist from the 1981 Canadian free jazz documentary Imagine the Sound below.