bio

Bassist / Cellist / Composer and Arranger Dylan Taylor is a veteran mainstay of the greater Philadelphia area Jazz scene. During his busy career Dylan has provided the bottom anchor for name artists such as Lee Konitz, Freddie Hubbard, Mose Allison and Larry Coryell, and taken part in steady local Jazz engagements in Center City's better hotels with pianist Tom Lawton's trio at the Four Seasons and saxophonist Tony Williams' quartet at the RitzCarlton.

Taylor has recorded extensively for the C.I.M.P. label on respective releases with saxophonist Bobby Zankel, vibraphonist Khan Jamal and Vocalist Kelly Meashey, and was a longtime member of Bobby Zankel's "little big band," The Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, with recordings on Dreambox Media.

 

Dylan studied bass with Al Stauffer, Dennis Sandole, Buster Williams (under an NEA Jazz study Fellowship) and John Pattitucci at City College of New York, where he also studied composition with Mike Holober. In 2013 Taylor's musical score for the feature film Takao Dancer was premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

 

Taylor's first self-produced project as leader, 2013's Sweeter for the Struggle, features his friend Larry Coryell and three of Dylan's original compositions. On both the recording and at the CD release concert, the legendary guitarist joined top Philadelphia Jazz talents including the aforementioned Tom Lawton and Bobby Zankel; one of the tunes, Art the Messenger (inspired by drummer Art Blakey), encapsulates Taylor's spiritual feelings regarding both his musicmaking/ bandleadingapproach and his overall worldview: Specifically, that positive hope combined with the musical diversity displayed in his compositions weaving together AfroCuban,fusion, straight ahead, blues and avantgarde canplay a part in a larger message of connecting us all individually to something bigger than ourselves, a sum truly greater than its parts. As Dylan Taylor states, "I hope that my music can contribute in some way to this process."