BILLY TAYLOR… in brief

Distinguished ambassador from the world of jazz to the world at large, Billy Taylor was born in Greenville, NC in 1921. His musical education began seven years later in Washington D.C. At 16, he enrolled as a sociology major at Virginia State University. Not long after graduating, Taylor moved to New York City where his first important engagement as a jazz pro was with Ben Webster. Throughout the 1940s Billy played with several big names and great musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Stuff Smith, Cozy Cole, Machito, Slam Stewart, Don Redman and Charlie Parker. As the house pianist at Birdland - (a chair he occupied beginning in 1949) - he supported many of the era's standouts. From 1952 on, Taylor has principally performed as the leader of his own trio, which has featured Ed Thigpen, Earl May, Oscar Pettiford, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Jo Jones, Victor Gaskin, and Freddie Waits. Present-day members are Chip Jackson and Steve Johns.

In addition to playing music, Taylor is a prolific writer about jazz. In the late 1940s, he published a manual for be-pop piano, and since then he has written more than a dozen others, as well as numerous articles. His most recent publication is Jazz Piano: A Jazz History (Wm. C. Brown). He has some 300 songs to his name too, including "I Wish I Knew How It Felt To Be Free," which is featured in the opening and closing credits of Rob Reiner's film, Ghosts of the Mississippi. Since the 70s, in works such as "Theme and Variations" commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra, he has effected a successful fusion of jazz with European classical music. A choral work, "Peaceful Warrior," dedicated to the memory of Martin Luther King was premiered by Robert Shaw. "Homage," written for the Julliard String Quartet, earned Taylor a Grammy nomination for "Best Instrumental Composition."

Immensely energetic and passionately devoted to jazz, Billy seldom passes up an opportunity to champion the idiom. In the 1950s, he was musical director of a 13-part television series called The Subject is Jazz, which featured an all-star cast of performers. His long and accomplished broadcasting career has included a stint as music director of the David Frost Show, the host and writer of "Jazz Alive" on National Public Radio, and, for the last 17 years, the regular on-air-arts correspondent for CBS's "Sunday Morning," with Charles Kuralt and now Charles Osgood. Two Peabodys, one Emmy and much appreciation are the fruits of his efforts.

Taylor's diplomatic efforts on behalf of jazz have taken him to the podium as well as the stage. He has led master classes and seminars, held adjunct professorships, and delivered lectures to several generations of musicians. To round out his own musical education, Taylor earned a Ph.D. from University of Massachusetts Amherst in the 1970s, after which he joined the faculty of the school, where he holds the Wilber O. Barrett Chair of Music. He has been appointed a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale, and has received 16 honorary degrees. He was also the founder of Jazzmobile, a unique outreach organization which brings free concerts and music clinics to thousands of inner-city residents.

In recognition of his musicianship and his many efforts on behalf of the arts, Dr. Taylor was appointed by the president to the National Council for the Arts, the first jazz musician since Duke Ellington to be so honored. He has also been awarded the National Medal of Arts - the only other jazz recipients are Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald. He has led State Department-sponsored tours to Hungary, the Middle East, and Latin America. Since 1994 Dr. Taylor has served as artistic advisor for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., which is the home to NPR's Billy Taylor's Jazz from the Kennedy Center. For 10 years running, he has also presented a series called "Mentors and Masters" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.