Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
Billy Taylor, a pioneering jazz pianist, composer and educator who sought to bring a deeper understanding of jazz to the masses, died Dec. 28 of heart failure. He was 89.
Dr. Taylor, as he liked to be called, sought to counteract the image of the jazz musician as unschooled. Taylor earned a doctorate in music from the University of Massachusetts. He wrote for magazines such as DownBeat and lectured at universities while also serving as a disc jockey and jazz correspondent for "CBS Sunday Morning."
Taylor was the artistic director for jazz for the John F. Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts and taught at places like Yale University but also founded the Jazzmobile in 1965 to bring top jazz performers to black neighborhoods and housing projects throughout New York City. It is an effort that continues today.
Born in Greenville, N.C. in 1921, Taylor was also a renowned performer. Over the course of his career, he performed with most of the greatest names in jazz, including Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Billy Holiday. His song "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free," became one of the theme songs of the civil rights movement.
"It is almost indisputable that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world's foremost spokesman for jazz," critic Leonard Feather once wrote.