Home » Search Center » Results: Billy Taylor
Results for "Billy Taylor"
Results for pages tagged "Billy Taylor"...
Billy Taylor
Born:
Billy Taylor encompassed that rare combination of creativity, intelligence, vision, commitment and leadership, qualities that made him one of our most cherished national treasures. The distinguished ambassador of the jazz community to the world-at-large, Dr. Billy Taylor's recording career spans nearly six decades. He has also composed over three hundred and fifty songs, including "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free," as well as works for theatre, dance and symphony orchestras. Playing the piano professionally since 1944, he got his start with Ben Webster's Quartet on New York's famed 52nd Street
Javon Jackson: Jackson Plays Dylan
by Katchie Cartwright
Bob Dylan without the lyric? Javon Jackson's Jackson Plays Dylan makes a strong case. With two exquisite exceptions, the arrangements are purely instrumental, but Jackson manages to draw us in past the words (he knows we can hear most of them in our heads) to the emotional heart of each piece. More than that, ...
Matt Marantz: About Music, Money and Mouthpieces
by Dean Nardi
Back in ancient times, when people would buy actual magazines with paper and print and pictures and ads, some of the music publications would offer companion CD compilations. You could always find two or three tracks that stood out and maybe enticed you to check out an artist's recorded output. That is how I came across ...
The Jazz Loft's Harbor Jazz Festival: Winard Harper & Jeli Posse / Eric Alexander Trio
by Dan Bilawsky
The Jazz Loft's 10th Annual Harbor Jazz Festival, which ran from Wednesday, September 17 through Saturday, September 20, 2025, offered high-caliber hits to please both jazz neophytes and the fully initiated. Things kicked off with an opening reception and the Frank Hansen-helmed Jazz Loft Trio running the venue's weekly jam session; newly-installed Stony Brook Director of ...
Charles Rangel: Harlem’s Congressman, Jazz’s Quiet Witness
by Hank Hehmsoth
Charles Rangel was more than a Congressman. He was Harlem's heartbeat--a living archive of its culture, community, and sound. In the National Jazz Museum in Harlem's Harlem Speaks Oral History series, Rangel reflects on growing up with the music, the icons who defined a generation, and how jazz was inseparable from Black life in 20th-century America. ...
Don Byas: Sax Expat
by Richard J Salvucci
Don Byas: Sax Expat Con Chapman 233 Pages ISBN: 9781496856081 University Press of Mississippi2025 Don Byas, a tenor saxophonist, who was regarded with great respect in his day, is, unfortunately, now not much more than a name. In part, it is because he has been gone for half a ...
Delfeayo Marsalis Uptown Jazz Orchestra: Crescent City Jewels
by Jack Bowers
Among the four musically talented Marsalis brothers from New Orleans, Delfeayo is the one who plays trombone. He is also the one who leads the impressive Uptown Jazz Orchestra in Crescent City Jewels, an affable salute to his beloved home town. The playlist spans the gamut from blues to ballads, breezy bon bons to flat-out burners, ...
Geri Allen & Kurt Rosenwinkel: A Lovesome Thing
by Neil Duggan
Geri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel had a duo date as part of the Jazz à la Villette festival in Paris in 2012. They flew in on the night from separate cities to play for a packed audience. They had only played together a couple of times and this concert was the first and only time they ...
Christian Sands: Christmas Stories
by Dave Linn
Early on, Christian Sands had a passion for music. He was enrolled in music classes at age four and wrote his first composition at age five. He started playing professionally at the age of ten and studied at the Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut before receiving his Bachelor of Arts and Masters degrees ...
Geri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel: A Lovesome Thing
by Dave Linn
This year the jazz gods have bestowed an early Christmas present upon us. A Lovesome Thing (truncated from the Billy Strayhorn composition which opens the album), is a seven-song, fifty-three-minute album which documents a remarkable live duo performance from Geri Allen and Kurt Rosenwinkel. It will likely be found on many Top Ten lists this year. ...

