

- Billy taylor just friends pdf free download how to#
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He went to Europe with the Don Redman orchestra and published a book on how to play bebop piano-one of the very first instructional guides to the then-new form of jazz. In subsequent years Taylor made his first recordings under his own name and continued to pay his dues as a young jazz pianist. Taylor also went on the road with jazz violinist Eddie South, who made one of the first recordings of a Taylor composition that was a tribute to a new acquaintance of Taylor’s-the still-obscure Thelonious Monk: He struck up what would prove to be a long-running and influential friendship with the great pianist Art Tatum, and quickly landed a gig with saxophonist Ben Webster, who had left Duke Ellington’s big band to start his own small group. Eventually Taylor moved to New York City and began exploring the vibrant jazz scene on 52 nd Street. When he told his father that he wanted to become a professional musician, his father withdrew financial support of Taylor’s education, although Taylor would later learn that he continued to step in and quietly resolve any monetary shortfalls that befell his son. He enrolled at Virginia State College in 1938 with the intention of pursuing a sociology degree, but he could not suppress his love of and drive to play music. Taylor fell in love with jazz as a teenager in the 1930s, hearing big bands like Count Basie and Duke Ellington on radio broadcasts, and seeing some of the music’s early pioneers such as Jelly Roll Morton perform.

In addition to his early musical training, Taylor wrote in his autobiography that “My mother was a teacher and my grandfather a preacher, so perhaps I inherited from them a desire to discuss, to exhort, and to impart the music to people in ways that transcended performance alone.” Jazz writer Leonard Feather once said that “It is almost indisputable that Billy Taylor is the world’s foremost spokesman for jazz.” Taylor was born on Jin Greenville, North Carolina, and grew up in Washington, D.C.
Billy taylor just friends pdf free download plus#
Billy Taylor was a jazz pianist, educator, broadcaster, composer of a civil rights anthem, and the man who dubbed jazz “America’s classical music.” In the next hour we’ll hear that civil rights anthem, “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free,” as well as some of Taylor’s other recordings, plus excerpts from his work as a television music director and jazz journalist.
