Home » Jazz Musicians » Art Taylor
Art Taylor
From time to time he led his own bands, notably Taylor’s Wailers, and toured the States and Europe with Donald Byrd, and did a short stint with Thelonious Monk in 1959. Also in ’59 he was the drummer on John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” album, which speaks for itself.
He became resident in Europe in the early 60s, playing with visiting fellow Americans including Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin. During this period, Taylor began recording interviews with musicians, the results of which, often acutely angled towards the racial and political circumstances surrounding jazz, were first published in 1977 under the title Notes And Tones. In the mid-80s Taylor returned to the USA and hosted a radio show. His last studio session was with Jimmy Smith in 1995 for the excellent record “Damn!,” and the album was dedicated to his memory.
Tags
Miles Davis: Miles '55: The Prestige Recordings
by Richard J Salvucci
It is hard to imagine any casual jazz fan failing a blindfold test on the vinyls on offer here. It is a game people play: how quickly can you identify the performer. A lot of horn players make it into the competition, because horns are boisterous and mimic the human voice and persona. Clark Terry, some say, requires one note. And for much of his career, starting in the mid-1950s, a compatriot and mentee of Terry's: Miles Davis was equally ...
Continue ReadingDorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached, 1957-1965
by John Chacona
Imagine if Sidney Bechet, Charlie Christian and Jimmy Smith were barely remembered and recordings of their music were long unavailable and known only on the geekiest corners of Discogs. That is essentially the status of harpist Dorothy Ashby. Like the three figures cited above, Ashby essentially created a language for her chosen instrument, the harp, where virtually none has existed before and established it as a legitimate and expressive vehicle for jazz improvisation at the highest level. Just how brilliantly ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: Blase And Yasmina Revisited
by Chris May
The three albums tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded in Paris for BYG Records during one week in August 1969 tend to get overlooked in the slipstream of the dozen or so he made in the US for Impulse earlier in the decade. More is the pity, for as Blasé And Yasmina Revisited so resoundingly attests, the BYGs contain some of the most audacious, many splendored and deep roots music that Shepp has recorded in his still-kicking career (at the time ...
Continue ReadingJohn Coltrane: Giant Steps: Remastered & Super Deluxe Editions
by Chris May
A date for your diary... 18 September 2020. That is when Atlantic / Rhino releases two cracking new editions of John Coltrane's first landmark album, Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1960). The main event is enhanced audio quality, which has noticeably more presence than any previous reissue. The double CD and vinyl Remastered Edition and digital-only Super Deluxe Edition consist of material which has been newly remastered by John Webber at Air Studios in London. The Remastered Edition includes ...
Continue ReadingSonny's Crib
by C. Michael Bailey
From the outset, pianist Sonny Clark's sophomore effort as a leader is crisp, white-hot hard bop. Leading a standard bop trumpet-tenor saxophone quintet (Donald Byrd, John Coltrane), supplemented with trombone (Curtis Fuller), Clark and his most reliable rhythm section of bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor carve five dictionary examples (with alternate takes on the CD) of the music evolving from bebop, principally on the East Coast (if we consider that cool jazz took root on the West Coast ...
Continue ReadingRed Garland's Piano
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist Red Garland follows up his debut recording A Garland of Red (Prestige, 1956) with what might be his finest statement leading a jazz trio, Red Garland's Piano. Garland continues his association with bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Art Taylor forming his most durable rhythm section, and one that would record with him on ten of his 45 recordings as a leader. The trio recorded the sides that would become Red Garland's Piano in December 1956 and March 1957 at ...
Continue ReadingA Garland of Red
by C. Michael Bailey
Like pianist Wynton Kelly and Kelly's debut recording New Faces -New Sounds (Blue Note, 1951), William McKinley Red Garland performed for years as a sideman before releasing his first recording as a leader, A Garland of Red. Originally from Dallas, Texas, Garland migrated to New York City after a stint with Hot Lips Page in 1946. There, Garland recorded with Eddie “Lockjaw" Davis and Charlie Parker, basically just kicking around until drummer Art Blakey heard him one night playing a ...
Continue ReadingArt Taylor: Two Hours at the Village Vanguard
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Art Taylor was a jazz drummer whose name, sadly, rarely comes up these days. But starting in 1951, Art was in huge demand as a sideman and recording artist. Over the course of his career, according to the Jazz Discography, he recorded on 323 sessions, a sizable number. Nicknamed A.T., or, to those in the know, Mr. Cool, Art established a new, straight-ahead drumming style that was less scattered and more consistently intense, like a pot of water coming to ...
read more
Photos
Music
Videos
Similar
Max Roach
drums
Art Farmer
flugelhorn
Clifford Brown
trumpet
Art Blakey
drums
Cannonball Adderley
saxophone
Horace Silver
piano
Kenny Dorham
trumpet
Jack DeJohnette
drums
Jackie McLean
saxophone, alto
Roy Haynes
drums
Philly Joe Jones
drums
Tadd Dameron
piano
Horace Parlan
piano
Tina Brooks
saxophone, tenor
Cecil Payne
saxophone, baritone
