Jazz Articles about Sam Taylor

About Sam Taylor

Album Review

On almost half of the nine tracks on Along the Way, tenor saxophonist Sam Taylor's close-knit quartet is actually a quintet thanks to the emphatic presence of the renowned Philadelphia-based tenor, Larry McKenna. Taylor's impressive visitor, two months shy of his eightieth birthday when the album was recorded in May 2017, keeps on playing with the sort of enthusiasm and awareness usually ascribed to musicians many years his junior--as, for example, Taylor, for whom McKenna has been an exemplar and ...

Album Review

Sam Taylor: My Future Just Passed

Read "My Future Just Passed" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
September 23, 2015

In jazz, whether right or wrong, instrumentation carries associations. If you put saxophone, trumpet, bass, and drums together, a portion of jazz fans will automatically think of Ornette Coleman before they hear a note; if you bring together clarinet, vibraphone, piano, and drums, many listeners will immediately move toward Benny Goodman; and if you build a brass ensemble bolstered by drums, you're bound to get thoughts of Lester Bowie's Brass Fantasy. Those artists who got there first, did it best, ...

Album Review

Sam Taylor: My Future Just Passed

Read "My Future Just Passed" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
July 19, 2015

One spin of saxophonist Sam Taylor's debut CD, My Future Just Passed, and it's not hard to tell where he's coming from, influence-wise. He's a traditionalist with a muscular sound, and you hear Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, and bringing things forward in time, perhaps Dexter Gordon, and on this particular trio affair at hand, Sonny Rollins certainly comes to mind in terms of concept. Hawkins and Webster for their rich, robust tones; Gordon for his blowing power, and Sonny Rollins ...