Home » Jazz Musicians » Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor's work with Max Roach, Henry Threadgill and Muhal Richard Abrams, among many others, established his reputation as a go-to French Hornist in the jazz and improvised music communities. Putting aside the Horn for the composer’s pen, Taylor’s newest work continues the spirit that won him recognition from legendary artist Max Roach, who said, “there is no one dealing with the music the way Mark is.”

Taylor, a native of Chattanooga, TN, has been commissioned to compose for theatre, dance, and the concert stage. He placed two songs in the Dollface Productions independent feature film "The Girl" and scored the documentaries “9/11 Fear In Silence” for JadeFilms and Camille Billops' "A String of Pearls”. He has written transcriptions of the work of seminal jazz bandleader James Reese Europe’s “Hellfighters” military band for the Brooklyn Repertory Ensemble and composed a multi-movement orchestral work commissioned by Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Foundation and premiered by the Tri-Centric Orchestra in New York City in the Fall of 2013.

Mark has also released four CDs of all original material, QuietLand, Circle Squared, At What Age and Live At The Freight (co- led with composer/saxophonist Jessica Jones).

Mark Taylor: Circle Squared

Read "Circle Squared" reviewed by Farrell Lowe

by Farrell Lowe
July 25, 2003

How often do you hear the French horn used in a jazz context as a solo instrument--especially a modern jazz context? Not often!

Mark Taylor's playing brought new colors and subtle nuance to Muhal Richard Abrams' Blu Blu Blu album back in 1990, and in '92 he contributed to the remarkable Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra's Flux. He was a integral part of the Ebony Brass Quintet '95 record Brand New Bag --which in many ways mirrored the concepts of the ...

Performance / Tour

Mark Taylor Launches New Quintet

Source: Artists Recording Collective, LLC
March 4, 2014

Over the last 20+ years, Mark Taylor's work performing and recording with modern musical giants Max Roach, Henry Threadgill and Muhal Richard Abrams, among many others, established his reputation as a go-to French Hornist in the jazz and improvised music communities. SECRET IDENTITY, Mark's newest ensemble, now puts the focus squarely on Mark Taylor the composer. Putting aside the French Horn for the composer's pen, Mark has enlisted the aid of fellow musical travelers Darius Jones and Jonathan Finlayson on ...
read more

175

Recording

Seattle Times - Saxophonist Mark Taylor: Passionate Lyricism

Source: Seattle Jazz Scene
April 8, 2009

From The Seattle Times: By taking his time and letting his music develop at its own pace, Mark Taylor has become one of the essential players on the Seattle jazz scene. While steadily pursuing his own musical vision, the alto saxophonist has toiled fruitfully as a sideman, contributing to more than half a dozen excellent ensembles. From long-running institutions like the Jim Knapp Orchestra (which plays the first Monday of every month at the Seattle Drum School) to short-lived projects ...
read more

169

Performance / Tour

Mark Taylor Quartet: A Four-Part Fusion of Friendship and Music

Source: All About Jazz
August 15, 2008

Mark Taylor and Gary Fukushima play Aug. 15 at Tula's as the Mark Taylor Quartet. Jazz musicians -- and, more broadly, boys -- bond over predictable things, so the collaboration between pianist Gary Fukushima and saxophonist Mark Taylor started with a question that went something like this: “Hey Mark, you want to watch the Sonics game with me?" About 15 years after they met as music students at the University of Washington, Taylor and Fukushima, both products of the area's ...
read more

206

Performance / Tour

Mark Taylor and Rob Reddy This Saturday at Brooklyn's Jalopy Theater

Source: Improvised Communications
July 26, 2007

On Saturday, July 28th, the Reddy Music Concert Series will present the double-bill of Mark Taylor's Nameless Quartet and the Rob Reddy Quintet at Brooklyn's Jalopy Theater. This is the fourth event in the ongoing monthly concert series, which saxophonist/ composer Rob Reddy curates as an extension of his label, Reddy Music.

Mark Taylor is a veteran performer, composer and arranger whose multi-faceted, two-decade career includes work with Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, Alan Silva, Henry Threadgill and McCoy Tyner ...
read more

"Mark Taylor is a virtuoso instrumentalist...there is no one dealing with the french horn or the music the way he is." - Max Roach

"The French horn is a notoriously finicky beast to master in a fast- paced improv setting which is probably why not many players have made their mark with the instrument. Add Mark Taylor's name to the list of the chosen few." - - Time Out New York

"Mark Taylor’s quartet certainly is unlike any other performing in today’s jazz scene." - Don Williamson, JazzReview.com

Primary Instrument

Composer / conductor

Credentials/Background

I work with Horn players of all levels with a special emphasis on those interested in improvisation and jazz. I also work with beginning and intermediate theory, arranging and composition students.

Contact me for availability. Rates: $65/hour