Music Keeps Us Young

Review ...meticulously executed, technically adroit music. It swings brightly through a catalogue of keyboard approaches, a pleasant warmthâ ¦consistently entertaining. -- Stuart Broomer, Cadence Billy Taylor belies his 75 years of life with this cheerfully infectious, flawlessly articulated performance. -- Jack Sohmer, Jazz Times UNBELIEVABLE! This album is absolutely fascinating... is so refreshing, elegant, stimulating and truly AMAZING...a dazzling performance. MAJESTIC! -- Paul Parietti, Fascinating Voyage Product Description This CD, Billy Taylor: The Music Keeps Us Young, showcases music legend and Grammy Award winner Billy Taylor, a pianist who has stood at the forefront of the Jazz world for almost half a century. Now at the peak of his powers and performing with his trio that includes Chip Jackson on bass and drummer Steve Johns, Taylor brings matchless grace and authority to his robust and inventive originals, as well as his interpretations of standards composed by John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, and Johnny Green, among others. His career is recognized with the utmost adoration and respect. Dr. Billy Taylor is one of only three Jazz musicians appointed to the National Council of the Arts and currently works as the Artistic Director for Jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, and is also known for the artist profiles he hosted as the Arts correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning. Founder of the famed Jazzmobile, Billy Taylor showcases both his musicality and intellectual curiosity on this impressive album. Billy Taylor is living proof that music does keep you young. About the Artist 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 Nat
ASIN: B000005BA6
VSKU: 4EKQOV002O9D_ns
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Billy Taylor Trio
Binding: Audio CD
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Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case may show wear and may be in library packaging. Ships Fast!