In 1949 he got a call to sub for Al Haig with Charlie Parker and Strings at Birdland. This was the beginning of his two-year stint as house pianist at that legendary jazz club, an unbroken continuum as soloist with all-star groups which included Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gilespie, Miles Davis, Kai Winding, Jo Jones, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Milt Jackson, Art Blakey, Terry Gibbs and almost all of the other top flight jazzmen who played that famous emporium. Often playing opposite such bands as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Stan Kenton and Lennie Tristano, his tenure at Birdland was one of Taylor's greatest learning experiences.

As leader of his own trio he also established records for long engagements at the Embers, the London House, the Hickory House, the Composer and Club Le Downbeat, where he introduced Latin percussionist Candido to the jazz world. It came as no surprise when Billy Taylor won the first International Critics Award for Best Pianist by Downbeat magazine.

Billy began recording with his own group during the early 1950's for such labels as Prestige, Riverside, ABC Paramount, Impulse!, Sesac, Mercury and Capitol Records. He also recorded albums with Quincy Jones, Sy Oliver, Mundell Lowe, Neal Hefti, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Sonny Stitt, Lucky Thompson, Coleman Hawkins and Dinah Washington. And because he was writing so prolifically, he started his own music publishing company, Duane Music, Inc.

Having firmly established himself as important musician, Billy began writing about jazz and giving lectures/clinics to music teachers interested in teaching jazz. He began to witness first-hand, the serious lack of funding for the arts and humanities and began to focus on radio and television in order to gain better exposure for America's classical music. Billy helped to facilitate many local and national broadcasts featuring jazz artists in live performances. Some in broadcast studios, others in nightclubs, dance halls, and hotels.

In 1958 he was named Musical Director of the first television series ever produced about jazz, The Subject Is Jazz, broadcast Saturday afternoon on NBC.. His house band for these thirteen programs included Eddie Safranski, Doc Severinsen, Tony Scott, Jimmy Cleveland, Mundell Lowe, Earl May, Eddie Safranski, Ed Thigpen and Osie Johnson. Guests included none other than Willie The Lion Smith, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Jimmy Rushing, Bill Evans and Aaron Copeland.

Billy remembers having lunch with Copeland: "We were talking about improvisation and he asked if we ever played music with no predetermined melody, harmony or rhythm and how he'd like to hear it if we could. So we did that on the show, playing what was, and probably still is, the most far out music ever heard on television."

During the 1960's, Billy was working regularly with his trio and hosting his own daily radio show on New York's WLIB. He was making guest shots on various TV shows and recording for Capitol Records. His success on WLIB led to a post at the popular New York radio station, WNEW, where he began playing jazz for their affluent middle-of-the-road audience. He continued to perform as well during this period, usually with his trio and sometimes with larger ensembles. At the same time, in 1964, Billy Taylor made a major contribution to bringing Jazz back to the community when he founded, with Daphne Arnstein, Jazzmobile, a unique outreach organization which produces summer outdoor concerts, conducts workshops and clinics; sponsors lectures/demonstrations and artists residencies in public schools; and develops special programs for disadvantaged youth in inner cities.

When Billy Taylor founded Jazzmobile with the goal of bringing jazz to the streets of Harlem, it was an untried concept. Since 1964, literally hundreds of jazz greats such as Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gilespie and Milt Jackson have made an important contribution to Jazzmobile by performing the free outdoor concerts which are now enjoyed by thousands people each season.

Billy proudly remembers Duke Ellington's Jazzmobile appearance, in 1971: "People didn't believe he would come uptown, but he brought the whole band, and I don't know who was more excited, the audience, or Duke. He loved playing for the people of Harlem, and they loved him, madly."

The program has since been extended through the five boroughs of New York and to other cities as well, including Washington, Pittsburgh and Hartford..

Back | Next