W. Allen Taylor

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W. Allen Taylor (born March 27, 1953 ) is an American actor , university professor and musician ( vocals ).

Live and act

Taylor worked in the theater from 1979, first in the New York area, then at the Negro Ensemble Company , at the La Mama Experimental Theater and on Broadway , before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1987 to complete his master's degree in fine arts at the American Conservatory To make theater . He then worked as a professor of theater arts at the College of Marin (outside of San Francisco), where he also directed. He also worked in the 1990s in individual episodes of the television series Nash Bridges (1996) and The Night Hawk (1988), he also had a supporting role in Brian De Palma's thriller My Brother Kain (1992). After retiring, he continued to work in the theater, from about 2006 onwards in his (autobiographical) solo piece Walkin 'Talkin' Bill Hawkins ... in Search of My Father , which was performed at the Marsh Theater in Berkeley and at other venues won and received a lot of critical attention. He also worked as a jazz singer . In 2010 he won the first Jazz Search West Competition . Taylor is a former member and soloist of the Oakland Jazz Choir , the Jazz Singers Collective, and the East Bay Center Jazz Ensemble . He was also a frequent singer in the Bay Area with the Yancie Taylor Jazztet , the Noel Jewkes Quartet and the Sharp Five Jazz Band .

In the 2010s, Taylor moved to Washington DC, where he continued to perform as a vocalist in well-known jazz clubs and venues around the city. In 2020 Taylor presented his debut album as a singer ( Storyteller ), on which he featured jazz tracks like “ So What ” ( arranged by Eddie Jefferson ), “ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat ” (with the lyrics by Rahsaan Roland Kirk ), “You're Looking At Me ”by Bobby Troup ,“ Throw It Away ”by Abbey Lincoln , the Ellington / Strayhorn title“ Day Dream ”and Dizzy Gillespie's “ A Night in Tunisia ”. Music director and pianist for the session was Chris Grasso .

Taylor's musical influences include Al Jarreau , Betty Carter , Nat King Cole , Eddie Jefferson and Little Jimmy Scott . According to the Jazz Journal , "His mellow, attractive voice has good diction, pitch, and clarity, even at faster pace and when using scat , and he's not averse to using diminished notes in true bebop fashion."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ W. Allen Taylor. sfgate.com, February 8, 2006, accessed June 7, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b Matthew Wright: W. Allen Taylor: Storyteller. Jazz Journal, June 4, 2020, accessed June 8, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Taylor, W. Allen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor, university teacher and jazz musician (vocals)
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1953