LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION mourning the death of legendary Jazz Pianist Dr.
William Taylor

WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to pay tribute to
citizens of the State of New York whose lifework and civic endeavor
served to enhance the quality of life in their communities and the great
State of New York; and
WHEREAS, Dr. William Taylor of the Bronx, New York, died on Tuesday,
December 28, 2010, at the age of 89; and
WHEREAS, William Edward Taylor, Jr. was born in Greenville, North
Carolina, on July 24, 1921, and grew up in Washington, DC; his father,
William, was a dentist; his mother, Antoinette, was a schoolteacher; and
WHEREAS, William Taylor had his first piano lesson at age seven and
later studied music at what is now Virginia State University; shortly
after moving to New York in 1943, within two days of his arrival, he
later recalled that he began working with the tenor saxophonist Ben
Webster at the Three Deuces on 52nd Street, and he remained a fixture on
that celebrated nightclub row for many years; and
WHEREAS, William Taylor had the technique, the knowledge and the
temperament to straddle the old and the new; his adaptability made him a
popular sideman with both swing and bebop musicians and led to his being
hired in 1949 as the house pianist at Birdland; and
WHEREAS, In 1951, William Taylor formed his own trio, which was soon
working at clubs like the Copacabana in New York and the London House in
Chicago; within a few years, he was lecturing about jazz at music
schools and writing articles about it for DownBeat, Saturday Review and
other publications; he later had a long-running concert-lecture series
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and
WHEREAS, William Taylor also became one of the few jazz musicians to
establish a successful separate career in radio and television; in 1958,
he was the musical director of an NBC television show, "The Subject Is
Jazz"; a year later, the Harlem radio station WLIB hired him as a disc
jockey; in 1962 he moved to WNEW, but he returned to WLIB in 1964 as
both disc jockey and program director, and remained in those positions
until 1969; he was later a founding partner of Inner City Broadcasting,
which bought WLIB in 1971; and
WHEREAS, Commercial radio became increasingly inhospitable to jazz in
the 1960s, but William Taylor found a home at National Public Radio,
where he was a familiar voice for more than two decades, first as host
of "Jazz Alive" in the late '70s, and most recently on "Billy Taylor's
Jazz at the Kennedy Center"; that particular series, on which he intro-
duced live performances and interviewed the performers, made its debut
in the fall of 1994 and remained in production until the fall of 2002;
and
WHEREAS, In 1968, William Taylor was appointed to New York City's new
Cultural Council, along with Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers and
other prominent figures in the arts; he later held similar positions on
both the state and federal level and until recently was an adviser to
the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington; and
WHEREAS, William Taylor earned a doctorate in music education from the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1975; "Dr. Taylor", as he
preferred to be called, was a living refutation of the stereotype of
jazz musicians as unschooled, unsophisticated and inarticulate, an image
that was prevalent when he began his career in the 1940s, and that he
did as much as any other musician to erase; and
WHEREAS, Dr. Taylor probably had a higher profile on television than
any other jazz musician of his generation; he had a long run as a

cultural correspondent on the CBS News program "Sunday Morning" and was
the musical director of David Frost's syndicated nighttime talk show
from 1969 to 1972; and
WHEREAS, In 1980, Dr. Taylor was a member of an advisory panel that
called for greater support for jazz from the National Endowment for the
Arts; he was given a National Medal of Arts in 1992; and
WHEREAS, A pianist with impeccable technique and an elegant, almost
self-effacing style, Dr. Taylor worked with some of the biggest names in
jazz early in his career and later led a trio that worked regularly in
New York nightclubs and recorded many albums; but he left his mark on
jazz less as a musician than as a proselytizer, spreading the gospel of
jazz as a serious art form given in high school and at college lectures,
on radio and television, and on government panels and foundation boards;
and
WHEREAS, Predeceased by his son, Duane, Dr. William Taylor is survived
by his wife, Theodora, and his daughter, Kim; and
WHEREAS, Armed with a humanistic spirit, imbued with a sense of
compassion, and comforted by a loving family, Dr. William Taylor leaves
behind a legacy which will long endure the passage of time and will
remain as a comforting memory to all he served and befriended; he was a
true asset to society; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
mourn the death of legendary Jazz Pianist Dr. William Taylor; and be it
further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the family of Dr. William Taylor.