Dr. Billy Taylor was the first to call jazz “America’s classical music,” and he has crusaded for greater recognition of jazz for over half a century. “We live in America lessen the value of our own culture by ignoring those who contribute to it,” Billy said.

Always in demand, Taylor conducts clinics and workshops in improvisation, piano styles, harmony, theory, and composition at major universities and colleges and is constantly called upon as a lecturer, delivering keynote speeches regarding critical issues affecting the arts.

He was the “artist in residence” at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was appointed Regents Lecturer. He holds the Wilmer D. Barrett chair at the University of Massachusetts and was the first artist to occupy the Jewett Chair of Jazz Studies at Fredonia State University. His yearly series of lecture demonstrations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art have been complete sell-outs, crating the demand for similar series at the National Gallery, The Smithsonian and Rice University.

He was the keynote speaker for three consecutive years at The Jazz Times Convention and has been spokesperson for the Greenwich Village Jazz Festival. He has taught, lectured, and given clinics at numerous schools such as Vassar College, C.W. Post College, John Hopkins University, Columbia, Yale, Tufts, Carlton College, Macalester College and Miami Dade Community College. As an advisor he has been called upon by black universities to help incorporate jazz programming into the curricula.

Dr. Taylor received a combined Masters Degree and Doctorate from the University of Massachusetts and has been granted seven honorary degrees. Yale has appointed Dr. Taylor both a Yale Fellow at Calhoun College and a Duke Ellington fellow. Taylor’s students are as varied as his talents. Whether he is teaching the history of jazz to high school students in Washington, DC, conducting a master class at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, or advising university arts administrators on how to book jazz programming, Taylor reaches his audience. According to Downbeat magazine, he represents jazz with “articulation, integrity and devotion.”

He has since received twenty two honorary doctorate degrees including Humanities degrees from Fairfield University, Carlton College, University of Massachusetts, Clark College and Bank Street College and Honorary Doctorates in Music from St. Johns University, Berklee College of Music, University of Minnesota, University of Michigan-Flint, George Washington University, and from Virginia State University, his father’s alma mater.

Billy Taylor has strived to maintain a balance between the performance and educational aspects of his career. In the midst of his performing peregrinations, he has been an adjunct professor at C. W. Post College in New York and a visiting professor at Howard University. And every summer, he leads the Jazz in July program at the University of Massachusetts, where he is the Wilmer D. Barrett Professor of Music

Billy Taylor Endowment for Jazz Residencies

Dr. Taylor believes in the importance of inspiring students through first-hand interactions with artists outside a traditional classroom environment. In March 1999, Billy and Teddi Taylor established the Billy Taylor Endowment for Jazz Residencies to provide support for annual residencies in the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center during which young, talented jazz artists perform and share personal professional experiences with students in the Jazz and African American Studies Program. Since that time, the Billy Taylor Jazz Residency has brought to campus such notable artists as vocalists Nnenna Freelon, Luciana Souza and Dianne Reeves; pianists Jason Moran and Danilo Perez; and violinist Regina Carter, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, and clarinetist Eddie Daniels. Residency activities include performances and workshops for aspiring jazz students on campus and in pubic schools and surrounding communities

The Lively Arts
Dr. Billy Taylor once said, “It is important for students to interact with artists,” and throughout his illustrious career, he always has found time to teach and interact with undergraduate and graduate students. He remains dedicated to teaching and inspiring general education students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1986 Dr. Frederick Tillis and Dr. John Jenkins founded The Lively Arts, the university’s first interdisciplinary general education course in the arts, designed to bring students into personal contact with performing and visual artists. Since then, Dr. Taylor has traveled to campus each semester to share his artistry and enthusiasm with some 240 undergraduates in the course—a total of more than 8,500 over the years. He also continues to teach graduate seminars for students in the Jazz and African American Music program.

Jazz in July

In 1982, Billy Taylor helped to establish the Jazz in July program at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, along with fellow faculty members Max Roach and Dr. Frederick C. Tillis.

Modeled on the success of the JazzMobile, Jazz in July brought many of these same artists and educators to Amherst to personally mentor young jazz students. These one-on-one events afford teacher and student alike unprecedented learning opportunities.

Since 1982, close to 1,500 students have attended this summer educational institute whose alumni now include such notables as vocalists Nnenna Freelon, and Paula West, pianist Jason Lindner, Latin jazz percussionist Andres Patrick Forero, alto saxophonist Myron Walden, Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio, and Tony award nominated for her role in the Broadway musical Lion King Tsidii LeLoka.

Each summer, Billy is in residence the full two weeks where he has taught master classes, coached ensembles, and continues to be actively involved serving as the hub of the guest artist wheel. Jazz in July celebrates its 25th year in 2006. Dr. Tillis continues to serve as Artistic Director, Jeff Holmes as Associate Artistic Director, and Mark Baszak as Administrative Director.

Lectures