Hailed by Downbeat magazine for his “adroit lyricism and gift for complex, imaginative composition,” trumpeter and composer Taylor Haskins is an artist who has distinguished himself as a leader of groundbreaking bands, a venturesome composer and producer in the field of media & music software, as well as a top-level sideman. He has played a vital role in Nels Cline’s Lovers orchestra, the Grammy-winning Dave Holland Big Band, Guillermo Klein’s 'Los Guachos', the Richard Bona Group and many other world-class ensembles. Haskins’ most recent work is 'Solo Solstice' on which he plays the rare Steiner-Crumar analog EVI (electronic valve instrument), the jazz-electronica hybrid 'Gnosis' and the disarmingly melodic 'The Point' by a new quintet called Green Empire, also featuring Haskins on the EVI. His five previous releases, dating back to 2003, are Fuzzy Logic, Recombination, American Dream, Metaview, and Wake Up Call. For 6 years, Haskins worked full-time as an in-house composer for the cutting-edge music production house tomandandy, creating music and sound design for numerous major commercial campaigns, films and art installations. While at tomandandy Haskins also helped develop and field-test proprietary (and ultimately patented) music generation software that employs artificial intelligence-based algorithms. Haskins completed his Masters degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1996 and thrived as a member of the demanding New York jazz scene for over 20 years.