Billboard : 07/29/1957
Score of 78

A reissue of an original 10-incher includes stretches of Taylor in a variety of moods. Six members range from the softly lyrical to some brilliant displays of right and left hand and contrapuntal improvising. In the case of this conversion, no new material was added but Taylor, working with Earl May on bass and Percy Brice on drums, is well worth the price anyway. Strong merchandise.

—–

Down Beat : 10/03/1957
Dom Cerulli

Two 10-inch records have been recoupled by Prestige to gather on one 12-inch LP The Billy Taylor Trio at Town Hall. Taylor, bassist Earl May, and drummer Percy Brice made the concert Dec. 17, 1954, but it might have been yesterday. The trio, still one of the really constantly improving, ever-challenging groups on the scene today, plays A Foggy Day, I’ll Remember April, a thoroughly searching How High the Moon, Billy’s love tune Theodora, and the exercise for two hands, Sweet Georgia Brown. A milestone.

—–

Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

On December 17, 1954 there was a jazz concert held at Town Hall in New York City in which the Billy Taylor trio was featured. Here, in this LP, the entirety of their segment of the concert is presented to you just as it sounded that night.

Originally this music was issued on a 10 inch LP but after the demise of that size disc, Prestige discontinued the printing of the record. Slowly, the requests started to come in and soon they reached a level of regularity which left the company no other course but to reissue this exciting, in person performance by one of the most popular jazz groups of today.

Imagine yourself to be seated in Town Hall (an excellent place to hear a concert) and from the opening notes of Sweet Georgia Brown your ears will transport you into the vital atmosphere that a fine selection of tunes played by a most musicianly trio in the presence of an enthusiastic audience can create.

After the opening chorus of Sweet Georgia Brown, Taylor shows that his left hand is as potent as his right by playing two choruses with his port paw alone and then engaging the two hands in conversation, both question and answer and contrapuntally.

Theodora, a ballad adoration of his wife, was composed by Billy on the afternoon of the concert. This is a sensitive, beautiful piece which shows that Billy has a heart for melody as well as a head.

Next is a happy, swinging version of A Foggy Day in which the sun of Billy’s lilting piano literally burns off the fog. The integration of the trio is shown here in the cohesive support given by Earl May and Percy Brice.

Both get a chance to shine in the solo spotlight of How High The Moon, an elongated version of the old national anthem of 52nd Street. Taylor’s facile fingers run the gamut of tempos from A to Z with both right and left hands getting ample solo space. After May’s solo, Billy introduces Ornithology as Brice accents with hands and foot. The tempo then goes to Z and Billy has two flashing stretches separated by Percy’s sold.

I’ll Remember April, the set closer starts dreamily with Billy rhapsodizing unaccompanied for a chorus before the trio joins hands in a medium up tempo. In the third chorus, Billy plays some single line improvisations before returning to the out of tempo technique that opened the piece.

That ends the concert but, happily, unlike most concerts that you would like to return to, this one can begin again and quite flexibly at the beginning, middle, or end.