PAUL TAYLOR
Saxophone
Paul Taylor took up the saxophone at the age of seven. He played in school bands, and in high school joined a Top 40 band called Mixed Company. Though the Denver native has lived and worked primarily in Las Vegas since graduating as a music performance major from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the proximity of his adopted hometown to Los Angeles gave him many opportunities to vibe with R&B and contemporary jazz producers and artists. In 1994, Jeff Lorber asked Taylor to play with him at the Catalina Island Jazz Trax Festival. Another popular keyboard player, Keiko Matsui, and her producer/husband Kazu liked Taylor’s charismatic performance and offered him an audition with their band. He recorded and toured with the Matsuis for two years (appearing on “Sapphire” and “Dream Walk”), and Kazu Matsui eventually co-produced his debut album “On The Horn” (1995), which spawned the #1 radio hit “Till We Meet Again.” Taylor’s mix of funk and sensuality were a natural fit for the emerging urban jazz genre, and he soon became one of its core artists. Although Taylor has since been one of the genre’s most popular live attractions as a solo artist, he eagerly accepted Russ Freeman’s invitation to tour with The Rippingtons as a special guest artist in 2000. He later toured as a featured performer with the all-star “Groovin’ For Grover” lineup (including Lorber, Richard Elliot and Gerald Albright) and performed and made his acting debut on the legendary ABC soap opera “One Life To Live.” Over the past few years, Taylor has also been part of two of the genre’s biggest summer tours, Gentlemen of the Night (with Marion Meadows and Warren Hill) and Sax and the City (with Meadows and Vincent Ingala).
Long a mainstay among the most popular and elite artists, Taylor has been on one of the most exhilarating upswings of his career over the past seven years, starting with “Ladies’ Choice” (2007), which marked his first ever #1 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz. “Burnin’” the title track from his 2009 album, “Push To Start” from “Prime Time” (2011) and “Supernova” from his latest release “Tenacity” (2014) hit the pole position on the Smooth Jazz Songs chart. The albums itself respectively reached the Top Ten on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.
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