Cecil Taylor discusses 'starving artists'.

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Cecil Taylor discusses musical integrity versus commercial success.

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Cecil Taylor discusses his original style and his influence on other players.

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Q: “A lot of people don’t want to take your music into their living room; you’re not creating ‘popular music’. You have a particular audience which is interested in your music and, as you say about having a million dollars – you’ll probably never earn a million dollars from record sales or anything like that…”

A: “Well, I think, you know, when one talks about what is popular. Of course, the music has always been popular with myself and in certain people. But you know, the unfortunate aspects of a culture are manifested in the responses that culture takes on as beliefs regarding, you know, the cultural artifacts that come out of areas of that culture that they don’t understand or have difficulty in accepting. And in terms of business, what I see as happening is that, and it’s been happening, simply the reason that certain music is not popular is because it’s never given the machinery that results in a product becoming popular. So, that, you know, if the company that James Lyons might record his group with, for instance, does not take it upon themselves to advertise the recording and use all the devices of advertising and promotion that are available to, say, The Grateful Dead, then you can’t hope to achieve the miracle of a gold record.”