Taylor, Billy (actually, William Edward Jr.)

Taylor, Billy (actually, William Edward Jr.), jazz pianist, educator, composer; b. Greenville, N.C., July 21, 1921. He was born into a musical family in which everyone played piano and sang. When Taylor was a youngster, the family relocated to Washington, D.C. He took classical piano lessons with Henry Grant and experimented with saxophone, drums, and guitar. This prepared him for his first professional appearance on keyboard at age 13 (he earned $1.00). At Va. State Univ., as a sociology major, he was advised by composer Undine Moore that his future lay in music; thereafter Taylor increased his musical study. Shortly after graduation in 1942, he moved to N.Y. In less than a day, he sat in at Minton’s with Ben Webster, who hired him two days later. That same night, Taylor met Art Tatum, who soon became his mentor. He became a regular on the N.Y. scene, working with Stuff Smith (1943) and Tiny Grimes (in a group that included Dizzy Gillespie and Cozy Cole) for Billy Rose’s Broadway revue The Seven Lively Arts. In the late 1940s, Taylor played at Well’s, a bar in Harlem, probably—on occasion—opposite an organist named Charlie Stewart. Taylor went on an eight- month tour of Europe with the Don Redman orchestra in 1946. He returned to N.Y. in 1948 to form a duo with organist Bob Wyatt and to play with Billie Holiday in a Broadway revue called Holiday on Broadway. In 1949, he published his first book, an instructional manual for bebop piano, a harbinger of his later pre-eminence as an educator. By that time, he had also begun to publish the first of what would become a body of nearly 300 songs.

In 1951, Taylor was hired as the house pianist at Birdland. Earl May was his bassist and remained with him through 1960. He and May also worked with Lester Young at the Audubon. In 1952, Taylor and May added Charlie Smith on drums to form a trio. The group became popular both on their own and working as accompanists in many posh N.Y. clubs. In 1954, they recorded an album live at Town Hall that featured, among other things, Taylor’s incandescent rendering of ’Theodora,” a ballad for his wife. He had a special interest in Latin music and around this time worked and recorded with Candido, whom he had met through Dizzie Gillespie. He also began a lifelong association with violinist Joe Kennedy.

In 1957, Taylor wrote a scathing article about the lack of support for jazz within the black community, “Negroes Don’t Know Anything About Jazz.” Around the same time, he embarked on a mission to educate the public—not only black audiences—about jazz music. In the late 1950s, he attended a Yale Univ. conference that explored ways to improve musical instruction in public schools. In 1958, he hosted the 13-part series “The Subject is Jazz” for educational television; guests included Duke Ellington, Lee Konitz, Warne Marsh, Langston Hughes, Aaron Copeland, Cannonball Adderley, and Bill Evans. Taylor also began writing on jazz for various journals. Beginning in 1959, he hosted a weekly radio show on WLIB, then moved to WNEW in 1962; he returned to WLIB in 1966 as program director, remaining there until 1969. In 1964, he co-founded the Jazzmo-bile, a touring stage that presents free concerts in the streets. Grady Tate began working with Taylor, doing jingles and record dates. When Taylor reformed his trio in the mid-1960s, he used Tate and Ben Tucker. They worked at N.Y.’s Hickory House six nights a week for six or seven years and gave concerts. From 1969-72, Taylor was musical director of the band for David Frost’s talk show, the first African American to hold such a position. During the 1970s, he also produced the Billy Taylor Show and served as musical director for Tony Brown’s Black Journal Tonight In 1979, he became host of National Public Radio’s Jazz Alive and the 13-week series, Taylor Made Piano; both won Peabody Awards. Since 1981, he has been a contributing correspondent for the CBS Sunday Morning television program, and has profiled many jazz musicians. Since the mid-1990s, he has hosted a radio series for National Public Radio of live broadcasts from the Kennedy Center.

From the late 1970s, Taylor became increasingly active as an educator, serving as a visiting faculty at Howard Univ., the Manhattan School of Music, U.C. Irvine, N.C. Central Coll., Shaw Univ., and many other colleges and universities, as well as an adjunct faculty member at C.W. Post. He held the Wilber D. Barrett Chair in Music at the Univ. of Mass., Amherst, through the 1990s, and hosted a regular summer jazz program there. In October 1997, he began a Distance and Learning program originating in Prince William County, Va., that allowed students nationwide to participate through an online hook-up.

During this period, Taylor began composing extended compositions that melded classical forms with jazz. Among the more successful of these works is Peaceful Warrior, commissioned by the Atlanta Symphony, a choral work in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Make a Joyful Noise, a suite commissioned by Tufts Univ. Taylor has received numerous honorary degrees and awards. Most notably, he was only the third jazz musician to receive the National Medal of Arts, an award he won in 1992. (The other two jazz musicians to receive this award were Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald.) Taylor continues to lead a trio, and worked in the 1990s with bassist Chip Jackson and drummer Steve Johns.

Taylor is a fine jazz pianist who has become better known as a broadcaster and educator, and as an international leader and spokesperson in the field. He appears to have influenced Herbie Hancock, among many others. Though his ubiquitous presence has drawn skepticism from some, he has proved honest and sincere. He is courageous in handling difficult issues and his ample musicianship lends support to his words.

Discography

Billy Taylor Piano (1945); Billy Taylor Trio, Vols. 1, 2 (1952); Mambo Jazz (1953); Billy Taylor Mambos (1953); Cross Section (1953); Billy Taylor Trio in Concert at Town Hall (inc. “Theodora”; 1954); Live! at Town Hall (1954); With Candido (1954); Billy Taylor Presents Ira Sullivan (1956); With Four Flutes (1959); Billy Taylor Trio Uptown (1960); Warming Up (1960); Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (1967); Today (1969); OK Billy! (1970); Live at Storyville (1977); Solo (1988); Jazzmobile All-Stars (1989); Homage (1994); Music Keeps Us Young (1996); Ten Fingers, One Voice (solo; rei. 1998).

—John Chilton/Lewis Porter