Performance

Monthly Listeners

Current

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Current

Streams

Current

Tracks

Current

Popularity

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Top Releases

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Separate Keyboards

2.7M streams

2,734,509

The Billy Taylor Touch

1.7M streams

1,668,685

75 Jazz Classics

29K streams

290,013

The Jazz Collection

244.2K streams

244,243

Top 55 Classics - The Very Best of Bil...

240.3K streams

240,325

Top 55 Classics: The Very Best of Bill...

240.3K streams

240,325

Musicale Du Jour

224.4K streams

224,409

Complete Jazz Series 1945 - 1949

221.9K streams

221,853

The Very Best Of 1945-1949

220.5K streams

220,548

The Very Best Of 1945-1949

220.5K streams

220,548

Biography

Billy Taylor was an amazingly articulate spokesman for jazz, and his profiles on CBS' Sunday Morning television program (where he was a regular beginning in 1981) were so successful at introducing jazz to a wider audience, that sometimes one could forget what a talented pianist he was for over half-a-century. While not an innovator, Taylor was flexible enough to play swing, bop, and more advanced styles while always retaining his own musical personality. After graduating from Virginia State College in 1942, he moved to New York and played with such major musicians as Ben Webster, Eddie South, Stuff Smith (with whom he recorded in 1944), and Slam Stewart, among others. In 1951, he was the house pianist at Birdland and soon afterward formed his first of many trios. He helped found the Jazzmobile in 1965. In 1969 he became the first Black band director for a network television series (The David Frost Show). He earned his doctorate at the University of Massachusetts in 1975 and founded and served as director for the popular radio program Jazz Alive. Despite his activities in jazz education, Taylor was rarely absent from performances and recordings, always keeping his bop-based style consistently swinging and fresh. He died of heart failure in New York on December 28, 2010, at the age of 89. ~ Scott Yanow, Rovi