Billy Taylor (bassist)
William "Billy" Taylor (* 3. April 1906 in Washington, DC , † 2 September 1986 in Fairfax in Virginia ) was an American jazz - bassist and tuba player of Swing .
Live and act
Billy Taylor played the tuba when he was thirteen and came to New York in 1924, where he was hired by Elmer Snowden for a year . He then worked in 1926 at Willie Gant and Arthur Gibbs , from 1927 to 1929 at Charlie Johnson , from 1929 to 1931 at McKinney's Cotton Pickers and again in 1932/33 at Charlie Johnson. During this period he gave up the tuba in favor of the bass. In 1934 he played with Fats Waller , then with Fletcher Henderson and from 1935 to 1940 in the Duke Ellington Orchestra , with which he played briefly in 1928. The entry of Jimmy Blantons led to Taylor leaving the Ellington band soon. During his time at Ellington he also took on small group recordings with Ellington Band musicians such as Cootie Williams and Johnny Hodges . In 1940 he worked with Coleman Hawkins , Red Allen (1940/1) and Joe Sullivan (1942), Cootie Williams (1944), Barney Bigard (1944/5), Benny Morton (1945) and Cozy Cole (1945). After that he worked mainly as a freelance musician in New York and from 1949 in Washington DC In 1944 he took part in Keynote Records with Johnny Guarnieri , Harry Carney a . a. under his own name.
Taylor was one of the most outstanding bassists of the swing era. He has participated in countless recordings, of which Fats Waller's Dream Man (1934), Duke Ellington's Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue , Harmony in Harlem (1937), Subtle Lament and Portrait of the Lion (1939) are particularly noteworthy. Taylor also recorded records under his own name.
The bassist should not be confused with the jazz pianist Billy Taylor, who was born in 1921 .
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette . 2nd Edition. Penguin, London 1994, ISBN 0-14-017949-6 .
- Richard Cook, Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide of Jazz on CD. 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
- Bielefeld Catalog Jazz 2001.
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Taylor, Billy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Taylor, William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz bassist and swing tuba player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 3, 1906 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Washington, DC |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd September 1986 |
| Place of death | Fairfax (Virginia) |