The Subject Is Jazz

Published on Apr 9, 2012
The Subject is Jazz was a television program that aired on NBC in 1958. Hosted by Gilbert Seldes with the musical direction of Billy Taylor, the show featured prominent jazz performers. The series of thirteen half-hour shows produced at WNBC in New York. Footage from the show features many interviews and performances of 50s jazz legends:
Duke Elllington, Billy Taylor, Wilbur de Paris, John Hammond, Aaron Copeland, Willis Conover, Toshiko, Lee Konitz, Cannonbal Adderley, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Dr. Marshall Stearns and others.

Jimmy Owens and Billy Taylor

Dave Brubeck & Billy Taylor - Take The 'A' Train

Harlem street renamed for jazz pianist Dr. Billy Taylor

POSTED 11:27 PM, JUNE 21, 2014.  UPDATED AT 11:25PM, JUNE 21, 2014
BY MAGEE HICKEY
HARLEM, Manhattan (PIX11) – Jazz was back on this corner of 138th Street and Fifth Avenue in Harlem, in tribute to the great, late jazz pianist and educator Dr. Billy Taylor.

Dr. Taylor, his wife Theodora and his children lived on this corner in a Riverton Square apartment in the 1960s.

“This is where a lot of my dad’s music was written,” Kim Taylor-Thompson told PIX11. “His signature piece, ‘I wish I knew how it feels to be free’ was written here so the street is really a part of our lives. To have dad associated with it is incredibly special.”

Dr. Billy Taylor was a consummate jazz pianist who played with all the jazz greats, but perhaps equally important he brought Jazz back to the people who couldn’t afford to go to fancy nightclubs, through Jazzmobile, bringing back jazz to the streets of Harlem.

“Billy Taylor was an icon, the epitome of people who have done major things, not just for the city and state, but the world.”


I first met Dr. Billy Taylor when I was in third grade because he was the father of my new classmate, Kim Taylor.
read more: http://pix11.com/2014/06/21/harlem-street-renamed-for-jazz-pianist-dr-billy-taylor/

Billy Taylor's Trios: 1950s

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

Today would have been Billy Taylor's 92d birthday had he not died in December 2010. Unfortunately, Billy is remembered most often now as a kindly educator and radio and TV personality rather than as a superlative pianist. Mind you, his work in jazz education was noble and needed. I would probably not be as passionate about jazz as I am now had Billy not turned up at Manhattan's Junior High School 143 in 1968 to play I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free and hand out free singles of his recording afterward. That one performance at my school made me realize that jazz offered much more excitement than anything I had heard up to that point.

Three cheers for all of his good work as a jazz evangelist, but Billy must be thought of first and foremost for his greatest contribution—leading one of the finest and most tasteful trios of the 1950s. When we think of trios from that decade, we think of pianist-leaders like Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, George Shearing, Erroll Garner and many others. Billy Taylor should be among them.

Between 1952 and 1954, Billy's trio featured Earl May on bass and Charlie Smith on drums. In 1954, Percy Brice replaced Smith, and the trio continued to do what it did best—turn out gorgeous versions of jazz standards. In 1956, the drum chair was filled by Ed Thigpen. [Pictured above: the Billy Taylor Trio at the Hickory House, c. early 1950s, Bob Parent/Archive Photos]

What made Billy special was his delicate touch, his rollicking swing and his chord voicings. Notes rang longer under his fingers, and his chords were elegant and hip—exhibiting great bop-infused skill but always remaining gentle and coaxing. Billy knew what ears and hearts loved, but he also knew what feet and sophisticated listeners wanted out of a jazz piano.

Billy didn't have drug or temper issues. He wasn't moody, brooding or emotionally dysfunctional. There was no dramatic backstory. He simply was a highly educated and gifted guy who loved to make listeners feel happy and was blessed with impressive talent as a player and communicator.

The best way to illustrate Billy's standing as a pianist and trio leader is through these clips...

Here's Give Me the Simple Life from November 1952 with Charlie Smith...

Give Me The Simple Life

Here's The Little Things That Mean So Much from November 1953 with Charlie Smith...

The Little Things That Mean So Much

Here's A Foggy Day with Percy Brice from December 1954...

A Foggy Day

Here's Memories of Spring with Percy Brice from April 1955...

Memories of Spring

JazzWax tracks: Among the 1950s recordings of the Billy Taylor Trio are the following CDs: Billy Taylor Trio with Earl May & Percy Brice, The Billy Taylor Touch, Billy Taylor Trio, Billy Taylor Trio at Town Hall and The New Billy Taylor Trio.

And then there's this baby—Billy Taylor Trio: Essential Jazz Masters, featuring 70 tracks for $18.

JazzWax interview: Here's Part 1 of my five-part interview with Billy. After you read Part 1, scroll back up to the top of that page. Above the red date, you'll find a link to Part 2. Do the same on successive parts to access the rest.

- See more at: http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/07/billy-taylors-trios-1950s.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Jazzwax+%28JazzWax%29#sthash.dfpY1MA7.dpuf

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Billy Taylor and Tommy Flanagan - Our Delight

Billy Taylor tribute honors more than just his music

By Bob Karlovits, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Music is only a part of the Billy Taylor story.

The tribute this weekend to the pianist (1921-2010) will have plenty of jazz with performers such as trumpeter Jimmy Owens and pianist Gerald Clayton. But, they insist, Taylor also needs to be remembered as an educator, an advocate of jazz and a protector of his musicians.

"Billy was very concerned with the plight of musicians who had no pensions or health care," Owens says. "He was very astute at taking care of his musicians."

Clayton says the tribute concert on the North Side naturally will present some of the music Taylor composed, but also will have plenty of comments about Taylor's work and advocacy of the music.

"His playing was really deep," he says "It's inspiring to look at his energy. But he also was an eloquent spokesman for the music."

The tribute concert is an appropriate part of the Guild's 25th season as a concert venue. Taylor was the first featured performer there in 1987. After that show, he became a steady guest at the Guild.

The shows will feature duo piano of Gerald Clayton and Christian Sands in the first half. The second will be a band of Owens. pianist Norman Simmons, saxophonist Houston Person, bassist Paul West, drummer David Gibson and singer Melba Joyce.

Taylor was a remarkable jazz figure who could have shaped a solid career from his performing. But besides that, he was a composer, professor of jazz at East Carolina University, artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and a lecturer who also had a long-running spot on CBS "Sunday Morning."

Robin Bell-Stevens insists Taylor would put his work as an educator at the top of his list of accomplishments. She is the president and CEO Jazzmobile of Harlem, which was co-founded by Taylor in 1964, as a way of taking music and the concert experience to the streets.

He won a Peabody Award for Jazzmobile to go along with his Grammy and Emmy awards.

Jazzmobile performs more than 40 concerts throughout the New York City area, has a jazz-education program in conjunction with City College of New York and presents lectures, workshops and performance opportunities to players of all levels.

Bell-Stevens says Taylor was the first person to observe that "jazz is America's classical music," the phrase that has become a mantra for jazz fans everywhere. He also saw the need to educate performers and listeners.

That led to his Saturday Jazz Workshops, aimed at letting younger players perform with the more experienced, a TV show in New York called "The Subject is Jazz," and his work on CBS.

But while he was acting an educator, he was leading his trio and composing. That music will be in focus during the performances this weekend.

But Owens says his work as a leader took on other roles, too.

Owens recalls how he led the band on TV's "The David Frost Show" in the late '60s and early '70s, taking jazz to a public that wasn't familiar with it.

In that role, he also negotiated a contract for his musicians that provided pay about twice the standard of the American Federation of Musicians.

Owens also says Taylor made sure to make pension payments for bands he led so musicians would get money from the union when they retired.

Clayton, 33, did not perform with Taylor, but has become an admirer of his work.

"I have learned what an important voice of jazz he was," he says.

Read more: Billy Taylor tribute honors more than just his music - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/music/s_769712.html#ixzz1fFGQGtjU

Billy Taylor - July 24, 1921 - December 28, 2010

Dr. Billy Taylor, a Jazz pianist, composer, educator and broadcaster who encompassed that rare combination of creativity, intelligence, vision, commitment and leadership, qualities that made him one of our most cherished national treasures, died in New York on December 28, 2010.  He was 89 and lived in Riverdale, New York.

The cause was heart failure, according to his daughter, Kim Taylor-Thompson.

The distinguished ambassador of the jazz community to the world-at-large, Dr. Billy Taylor's recording career spanned over six decades. He also composed over three hundred and fifty songs, as well as works for theatre, dance and symphony orchestras.

Among his most notable works is "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", achieving great popularity with Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Nina Simone covered the song in her 1967 album Silk and Soul, and the song continues to be recorded by many artists worldwide, most recently by Levon Helm.

Playing the piano professionally since 1944, he got his start with Ben Webster's Quartet on New York's famed 52nd Street. He then served as the house pianist at Birdland, the legendary jazz club where he performed with such celebrated masters as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. Starting in the 1950s, Billy Taylor ked his own Trio, as well as performed with the most influential jazz musicians of the twentieth century.

After many years of recording for leading record labels, in 1989, Taylor started his own "Taylor Made" record label to document his own music, releasing four albums, and in the late 90s, "Soundpost Records," releasing his two final recordings.

Dr. Taylor was not only been an influential musician, but a highly regarded teacher as well, receiving his Masters and Doctorate in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and serving as a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University.

He also hosted and programmed such radio stations WLIB and WNEW in New York, and several  award winning series for National Public Radio. In the early 1980s, Taylor became the arts correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning.

Dr. Billy Taylor was one of only three jazz musicians appointed to the National Council of the Arts, and also served as the Artistic Advisor for Jazz to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he developed one acclaimed concert series after another including the Louis Armstrong Legacy series, and the annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival.

With over twenty three honorary doctoral degrees, Dr. Billy Taylor was also the recipient of two Peabody Awards, an Emmy, a Grammy and a host of prestigious and highly coveted prizes, such as the National Medal of Arts, the Tiffany Award, a Lifetime achievement Award from Downbeat Magazine, and, election to the Hall of Fame for the International Association for Jazz Education.

Dr. Taylor's survivors include his wife, Theodora and his daughter, Kim Taylor-Thompson.  A son, Duane, passed away in 1988.

http://www.billytaylorjazz.comFrom: Jazz Promo Services
Jim Eigo, jazzpromo@earthlink.net

Billy Taylor and Ramsey Lewis Duo

Billy Taylor and Dick Hyman Play Bebop

Billy Taylor....

Taylor was born in Greenville, but moved to Washington, D.C. when he was 5. He graduated from Virginia State College with a B.S. in Music in 1942, and has been playing piano professionally since 1944, starting with Ben Webster's Quartet on New York's 52nd Street. He later became the house pianist at Birdland, where he performed with the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. He was a protege of jazz pianist Art Tatum. In 1958, he was the Musical Director of NBC's The Subject Is Jazz, the first ever television series on the subject of jazz.

In 1964, Dr. Billy Taylor founded New York's Jazzmobile, which provides arts education program of the highest quality via workshops, master classes, lecture demonstrations, arts enrichment programs, outdoor summer mobile concerts, special indoor concerts and special projects.[1] During the 1960's,the Billy Taylor Trio was a regular feature of the Hickory House on West 55th street in Manhattan In 1981, Jazzmobile produced a Jazz special for the National Public Radio, and for which the program received the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting Programs. Jazzmobile's 1990 Tribute Concert to Dr. Taylor at Avery Fisher Hall, part of the JVC Jazz Festival, featured Nancy Wilson, Ahmad Jamal Trio and Terence Blanchard Quintet.

Among his most notable works is "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", composed in 1954, and subsequently achieving more popularity with Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Nina Simone covered the song in her 1967 album Silk and Soul. It is widely known in the UK as a piano instrumental version, used for BBC1's Film programme, hosted by Barry Norman and subsequently Jonathan Ross. Derek Trucks, The Lighthouse Family and Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra have also recorded versions.

In 1989, Billy Taylor started his own "Taylor Made" record label to document his own music, releasing four albums, You Tempt Me (1996) is a strong outing by his 1985 trio (with Victor Gaskin and drummer Curtis Boyd) that includes a rendition of Duke Ellington's "Take the 'A' Train". White Nights (1991) has Taylor, Gaskin, and drummer Bobby Thomas performing live from Leningrad in the Soviet Union, than came Solo (1992), and Jazzmobile Allstars (1992).

With over twenty three honorary doctoral degrees, Dr. Billy Taylor is also the recipient of two Peabody Awards, NEA Jazz Masters Award (1998) an Emmy Award (1983) for "Outstanding Informational, Cultural or Historical Programming", a Grammy Award (2004)[2] and a host of prestigious and highly coveted prizes, such as the National Medal of Arts (1992), the Tiffany Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Down Beat Magazine. He was also honored in 2001 with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award,[3] and election to the Hall of Fame for the International Association for Jazz Education.
Now in his eighties, and officially retired from active touring and recording, he remains active with his educational activities and a full schedule of speaking engagements and appearances on radio and television.

Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award, Down Beat magazine, 1984;
inducted in Down Beat Hall of Fame;
Peabody Award for radio series The Subject is Jazz Emmy award, CBS Sunday Morning segment, 1983;
National Medal of the Arts, 1992;
Jazz Masters Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, 1988;
International Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame, inducted 1991;
Tiffany Award, International Society of Performing Arts Administrators, 1991; Mayor's Award for Art and Culture, New York City;
Man of the Year, National Association of Jazz Educators.
Wikipedia

Billy Taylor and Monty Alexander - Joy Spring

Billy Taylor, Duke Ellington and Willie the Lion

http://www.billytaylorjazz.net presents Billy Taylor playing along with the Master himself, and piano legend Willie the Lion Smith, from a 1969 tv celebration of Billy's birthday.

Billy Taylor and Dick Hyman Play Bebop

Billy Taylor / George Russell / Bill Evans....

episode of Billy Taylor's' 1958 TV show, "The Subject Is Jazz," featuring Bill Evans, Tony Scott, Art Farmer, Jimmy Cleveland, Doc Severinsen, Ed Thigpen, Mundell Lowe, Eddie Safranski and George Russell.

Billy Taylor and Ramsey Lewis - The Blues

Billy Taylor plays Duke Ellington's C Jam Blues