"Risk"
by David Taylor
from The International Trombone Society Journal, Volume 31, No. 3

Gil Evans and I were walking in Venice one night. He told me that Duke Ellington told him: "If you keep yourself open, you never know who will come along, pull your coat, and take you left." This article is a personal journal about how I have always believed in this principle.

My copy of Luciano Berio's Sequenza V had been in the filing cabinet for literally 30 years before I attempted to play it. The piece was written for tenor trombone, had a very different performance concept, and somewhat of an "elite new music head." Deep down I had the awareness that it required a long-thread view and internal time performance skill that was overwhelming for me. I had taken classes with Berio, Hall Overton (arranger of Thelonious Monk's big band book) and composer Jacob Druckman at Juilliard in the '60s. Even though they gave me a comprehensive, different overview of classical and jazz harmony, the piece was not approachable. Sequenza remained one of those compositions that stayed in the back of my mind over the years, reminding me there was a composition with living structure available, and I wasn't taking advantage of it- a world-class piece that could be personalized, different every time, open to whimsy, and audience friendly.Do you remember the first through-composed music that really forced you out of yourself? Angels Of The Inmost Heavens for brass quintet by Lucia Dlugoszewski was the first for me. Although I must say, as a student, the performance that really encouraged me to have the love and guts to stick with the bass trombone was the solo in Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin. I can even remember the heroic feelings I had driving home to Brooklyn that night after the concert, tooling down the West Side Highway- radio blaring ROCK AND ROLL.
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"Dave Taylor: Playing With Big Bands, Classical Orhestras, or Chamber Groups..."
by Michael Bourne
from Downbeat Magazine

"I don't think of myself as a jazz player or a classical playerr," said David Taylor, master of the bass trombone. "I hate to even think in terms of the bass trombone. It's like a painter with a brush or a writer with a pencil. It's a tool. Yeah," he laughed, "it's a hammer. Call me a hammer."

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Edwards Pro Stop interview

Christan Griego: You just got back from Austria. Do you want to talk about that trip?David Taylor: Sure, I had a great time in Austria.
. On this trip, I was in Vienna, playing in two different settings: a jazz club called "Porgy and Bess," and Vienna's main concert hall. It was wild, soloing on this incredibly historic stage. In both venues, I was performing in a trio for bass trombone, soprano saxophone, and piano.

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"An Appreciation and Interview"
by DOUGLAS YEO, Bass Trombonist, Boston Symphony Orchestra from The International Trombone Society Journal, Volume 19, No. 4 and Volume 20, No. 1

In the program notes to David Taylor's historic 1984 Carnegie Hall recital, annotator David Wright penned the following telling words:It's true that David Taylor has been through The Juilliard School, and his professional skills have put him at the top of his field. But he's also married, with a couple of kids, and that gives a person something to think about besides whether the sixteenth note is exactly a third as long as the dotted eighth. Such as: In what kind of world are we hearing this music? How do we as artists and audiences affect that world? How should we play, and listen, and live?"

Asking questions is a big part of David Taylor's life. So is answering them. But whyshould we listen to David Taylor's questions, or care about his answers? The answer to that question is simple: Because he has something to say.There are abundant examples in the past of musicians who excelled in many different musical genres. Palestrina and Bach distinguished themselves in composing both secular and sacred music. Early in their careers, Caruso and Paganini were equally at home in the cabaret and the concert hall. But in our highly specialized times, it is more the exception than the rule when a performer successfully moves back and forth across the musical "boundary lines." In light of this, it is even all the more remarkable to note that there has never been a trombonist, much less a bass trombonist, who has distinguished himself in as many areas as David Taylor. And it is very clear that his influence has been very strong in each area in which he has become involved.

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