Sam Taylor (saxophonist)

Sam " The Man" Taylor ( born July 12, 1916 in Lexington ( Tennessee) as Samuel L. Taylor, † 1990) was an American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophone (tenor, baritone) and clarinetist.

Taylor came from a musical family and studied at Alabama State University, where he played in college orchestra. After that he was in the band of his brother Paul in Gary (Indiana). 1937/38, he played with Scatman Crothers ( 1910-1986 ), who was known as an actor later, and from 1939 to 1941 at the Sunset Royal Orchestra. 1941-1943 and 1945/46, he was in the band of Cootie Williams, suspended for one year 1944/45, with Lucky Millinder. 1946 to 1952 he was with Cab Calloway, with whom he 1951 South American tour enterprising and 1952 was in the Caribbean. Then he turned more to the rhythm and blues. In 1952 he had a hit with the Birmingham Boogie, recorded with his Blues Chasers ( a quintet with Taft Jordan trumpet, Milt Hinton bass, Panama Francis drums, Bert Keyes Piano ).

He also led 1955/56, own combo and was with this solo or a sideman on recordings. On the original recording of " Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Big Joe Turner, he played the saxophone. He played a lot of rhythm and blues boards as a leader and also took part, among others, Louis Jordan (1956 ), Ray Charles ( 1953), Ella Fitzgerald ( 1953), Buddy Johnson, Sy Oliver, Quincy Jones Lawrence Brown on. Taylor led in the 1950s as the successor of Count Basie, the studio band for the Camel Rock and Roll Dance Party of the Disc Jockey Alan Freed at CBS. In the 1960s he led his own bands, with whom he recorded also. In 1963 he was on tour in Japan, among others, Dud Bascomb.

His swing - oriented disk Jazz for Commuters 1958 has come out as a new CD. He plays there with Charlie Shavers, Frank Rehak, Thad Jones, Georgie Auld, Budd Johnson, Hank Jones, Billy Bauer and his old rhythm section Milt Hinton and Panama Francis.