Home » Jazz Articles » Sam Taylor
Jazz Articles about Sam Taylor
About Sam Taylor
Instrument: Saxophone, tenor
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar ToSam Taylor: Let Go
by Edward Blanco
Presenting his third offering from the Cellar Live record label, Harlem-based and Philadelphia native, saxophonist Sam Taylor unleashes an exciting bop-filled package of contemporary jazz covers, making a superb job of interpreting the music of composers such as Benny Golson, Hank Jones, Jule Styne and Jimmy Van Heusen and laying down sturdy new treatments of oft-recorded and ageless classics. The goal of this project is best described by the saxophonist himself in the liner notes when he states: Fill the ...
read moreSam Taylor: Let Go
by Edward Blanco
A very tasteful and swinging version of the Jimmy Van Heusen classic standard Here's That Rainy Day," from tenor saxophonist Sam Taylor on his third album as leader entitled Let Go featuring trumpeter Terell Stafford and an all-star rhythm section of pianist Jeb Patton, bassist Neal Miner and drummer Willie Jones III. The quintet sets out to send a clear message on the title track and this piece is but a glimpse of how good they sound when they all ...
read moreSam Taylor: Let Go
by Pierre Giroux
Tenor saxophonist Sam Taylor is a man with a purpose. He is committed to sharing the joy music brings him with like-minded listeners. For this album, he brought together a number of his heroes including trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist Jeb Patton, bassist Neal Miner and drummer Willie Jones III at one of jazz's most iconic recording studios, the Van Gelder Studios at Englewood Cliffs NJ, on January 31, 2022, under the guidance of engineer Maureen Sickler. ...
read moreQuinn Sternberg: Cicada Songs
by Chris M. Slawecki
On Cicada Songs, bassist Quinn Sternberg paints a dreamy portrait of a languid summer evening at home, a visit to a comfortable front porch full of snoozing dogs, meandering cats, and the natural summer serenade of its title track. The first Cicada song is June," Sternberg and company's collective musing about what Sternberg's beloved dog named June might dream about. June" opens with a shimmer of cymbals, like you're passing through the gossamer curtain of sleep and are ...
read moreSam Taylor: Along The Way
by Jack Bowers
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 ...
read moreSam Taylor: My Future Just Passed
by Dan Bilawsky
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, ...
read moreSam Taylor: My Future Just Passed
by Dan McClenaghan
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 ...
read more