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Lost In '10
Source:
Sound Insights by Doug Payne
One cannot acknowledge the year's creative contributions without noting its losses. This year seemed unusually disproportionate in the number of creative voices that moved onto another plane. Here, I note only those whose artistry has had particular impact on my life. I certainly recognize that many, many others have departed the Earth this year. But I hope this feeble remembrance repays a small portion of the enrichment these creative voices have provided to me. December 28: Billy Taylor, 89, American ...
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Charles Fambrough - R.I.P.
Source:
Sound Insights by Doug Payne
After a long bout battling liver disease and many years of suffering, the great jazz bassist Charles Fambrough passed away on Saturday, January 1, 2011. Fambrough had apparently been awaiting a transplant match. Several musical tributes were held in Philadelphia over the last several years to help Fambrough and his family pay the bassist's outrageous medical expenses. Philadelphia resident Charles Fambrough was born on August 25, 1950. Fambrough studied classical piano throughout his elementary and high-school years. He gravitated to ...
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Jazz Pianist Billy Taylor, Rest in Peace
Source:
MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
Legendary jazz pianist, composer and educator Dr. Billy Taylor died on December 28, 2010 at age 89. He was long admired throughout his career as an innovative musician who composed over 300 tunes. Taylor had an illustrious career as a jazz pianist, getting his start with the Ben Webster Quartet in New York City, and was later the house pianist for the famous Birdland Jazz Club, sitting in Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and others. Dr. Taylor has long been associated ...
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Dr. Billy Taylor (1921-2010)
Source:
Jazz Loft Project by Sam Stephenson
I had only two opportunities to chat with Dr. Billy Taylor. The first time I called him about 821 Sixth Avenue. I asked him if he knew Hall Overton and he said, “Of course." He didn't remember taking part in any jam sessions at the loft but he fondly remembered Overton as a congenial colleague and comrade. The second time I called him was in regard to my research on Thelonious Monk's background in North Carolina's coastal plains, a background ...
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Billy Taylor (1921-2010)
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Billy Taylor, a pianist mentored by Art Tatum who could play any jazz style flawlessly and whose graceful keyboard choices were matched only by his ability to communicate the joys of jazz on TV and radio, and in books and classrooms, died in New York on December 28 of a heart attack. He was 89. [Photo by Hank O'Neal] A jazz giant who eschewed alcohol and drugs, Billy defied the jazz-musician stereotypes found in pulp fiction and film of the ...
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Billy Taylor, 1921-2010
Source:
Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
Billy Taylor, a pianist who became a television and radio spokesman for jazz and made the music familiar to millions, died last night in a New York City hospital after sufferingheart failure at home. He was 89. In his work on National Public Radio and CBS-TV's Sunday Morning, Taylor's playing and relaxed explanations dispelled for many listeners and viewers the notion that jazz was remote, impenetrable and difficult. He earned a doctorate in music in 1975 and chose to be ...
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Billy Taylor: 1921-2010 - Scholarly jazz ambassador considered D.C. home
Source:
Michael Ricci
Billy Taylor, one of the most versatile, influential and revered figures of the jazz world, who left his mark as a pianist, composer, educator and broadcaster and made Washington's Kennedy Center one of the nation's premier concert venues for jazz, died Dec. 28 at a hospital in New York. He was 89 and had a heart attack. Dr. Taylor, who grew up in the District and derived his early musical education from local teachers and from jazz shows at the ...
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