Billy Taylor (19!1-!010)

Billy Taylor, a pianist mentored by Art Tatum who could play any jazz style flawlessly and whose graceful keyboard choices were matched only by his power to pass the joys of love on TV and radio, and in books and classrooms, died in New York on December 28 of a heart attack. He was 89. [Photo by Hank O'Neal]

A jazz giant who eschewed alcohol and drugs, Billy defiedthe jazz-musician stereotypes found in pulp fiction and picture of the 1950s.

He was gregarious and courtly, well-spoken and approachable-and oddly devoid of the simmering anger, anti-social behavior, bad habits and hipster persona that made the love life at once tempting and dangerous.

In many ways, Billy didn't ask the cartoonish trappings that sprang up around jazz starting in the late '40s. A highly trained musician, Billy's benevolent personality made his piano playing look easy-a powerful trait that encouraged those who held golden opportunities to part them with him.

Easy-going and industrious, Billy started his calling by accompanying the best jazz artists in New York in the mid-'40s. All saw enormous promise in Billy, and all took him under their wing-buffering him from the legions of nocturnal hangers-on, Runyonesque exploiters and chiseling club owners who peppered the New York jazz scene.

One suspects that many of these seasoned jazz artists saw something of themselves in Billy and went out of their way to keep him from becoming just another instant in the jazz pan. Given the lengths to which these jazz artists went, Billy was viewed by older musicians as jazz's best guess for proving that the medicine was fine art and not merely background for club conversations.

Billy's talent and sunny disposition often landed him prized spots on level and in recording studios in the '40s. He too was Birdland's house pianist in the early '50s, where he accompanied virtually every jazz legend who played there-except pianists, of course.

Billy's recording career began in 1944 with violinist Eddie South, and his first leadership date for Savoy came a twelvemonth later with Al Hall on deep and Jimmy Crawford on drums. The four tracks recorded that day in March 1945 wereMad Monk, Solace, Night and Day and Alexander's Ragtime Band.

The dexterity exhibited on those recordings helped Billy land a plum spot in a 1945 concert at New York's Town Hall that was recorded by Commodore Records. Sessions with major jazz artists followed, and Billy joined Don Redman's band in 1946, becoming one of the first jazz musicians to turn Europe only after World War II.

Upon his comeback in 1947, Billy formed a quartet that included bassist John Levy, John Collins on guitar and Denzil Best on drums.

I spoke with John Levy [pictured] yesterday about Billy and this group:

"I don`t remember how or when I met Billy. We were all friends, playing gigs together on 52nd Street. We both had accompanied jazz violinists a few days earlier-Billy with Eddie South, and me with Stuff Smith. Denzil and I had worked together with pianists Lannie Scott and Jimmy Jones. And John Collins already was an accomplished guitarist. We were a fast rhythm section-exactly the case that clubs would need to hire.

"We all assumed from the first that we`d be heading out on the road to tour. But it didn`t go out that way. Everyone in the grouping was moving in different directions at once. Later in '47 I recorded with Lennie Tristano and Billy Bauer. Then Denzil and I went with Billie Holiday in 1948.

"Even backwards in `47, Billy was well respected by everyone. He was a big player from the start, and his educational passion was already showing. He would research everything-who wrote the songs, who had recorded them, how they recorded them and so on."Billy was nave-in a right way. He was an ingenuous and the classiest musician around. He was strictly educational. He didn`t fall out, and he didn`t hit on women or any of that stuff. He married Teddi and that was it. Everyone loved him."

Between 1947 and 1950, Taylor performed and recorded with a full array of leading artists,including Charlie Parker, who requested Billy for his August 1950 concert with strings at the Apollo Theater.

In 1952, Billy formed a working trio with bassist Earl May and drummer Charlie Smith-perhaps his greatest group. During this period, Billy was one of the first trio leaders to integrate Latin jazz into his groups. In 1954, the Billy Taylor Trio recorded with conga player Candido Camero for Prestige.

I spoke with Candido yesterday:

"Billy was a genius, a really nice gentleman and humble. There are not enough words to discover how well he was in every way. Not many people know he played with Machito and His Afro-Cubans in 1946 while Machito was waiting for Rene Hernandez to occur to New York from Cuba. Billy had conditioned the Latin feel early by associating with a lot of Latin musicians and by leaving to learn Latin music in clubs. He was always well to me. I will lose him." [Pictured: Candido, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in 1950]

Billy's TV appearances as an "explainer" of jazz's special qualities and importance began in the later fifties and continued throughout his career. He was the musical director of the David Frost Show in the late '60s and early '70s, and his jazz segments for Charles Kuralt's Sunday Morning on CBS, in which he profiled jazz greats, were always intimate and authoritative. In this regard, Billy probably did more to introduce jazz to new audiences than anyone else before or since.

Last year, after I interviewed Billy, I visited him at his flat with filmmaker Bret Primack. During our time there, I had a risk to tell Billy that he was responsible for my own interest in jazz. Back in 1968, Billy had visited my junior high school in upper Manhattan with bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Grady Tate. After they performed I Care I Knew How It Felt to Be Free in the school's auditorium, 45-rpms of the sung were handed out to each student. I went home and played the record endlessly, or at least until I heard Young Holt Unlimited's Soulful Strut a twelvemonth later.

Touched by my comment, Billy went into a cupboard in his music studio and emerged with a script he had written. It was Jazz Piano: A Jazz History. He open the roll and wrote something inner and handed it to me, saying "And I think it." Later, I had a chance to understand the inscription: "Dear Marc, Keep on holding on!!"

While I was penning this post yesterday, Nat Hentoff called and the matter was Billy:

"I think Billy was greatly underappreciated as a jazz pianist," Nat said. "He was always surprising himself. He wasn't a pyrotechnician, but he was incessantly telling his report on the keyboard and finding new ways to be himself."

Those who have had the good luck to pass time with Billy will not easily forget his wide smile, oversized glasses and melifluous voice. His contributions to know are matched only by his vast contribution to jazz appreciation. Billy spread the gospel-gently.

JazzWax notes: You can understand my five-part JazzWax interview with Billy Taylor here.

My interviews with John Levy, Candido Camero and Nat Hentoff are here, here and here.

Also, see Will Friedwald's tribute to Billy Taylor in today's Wall Street Journal here. Billy Taylor's site is here, featuring lots and dozens of videos.

JazzWax tracks: If you are unfamiliar with Billy Taylor and want a handful of recordings by the pianist, here's my name of five favorites (the foremost one is a must if you don't own it already):

• Billy Taylor Trio (Prestige) here.
• Billy Taylor Trio with Earl May and Percy Brice (Prestige) here.
• Billy Taylor with Candido (Prestige) here.
• Taylor Made Jazz (Argo) here.
• My Fair Lady Loves Jazz (ABC-Paramount) here.

JazzWax clips: Here's Billy Taylor and Candido Camero playing Mambo Inn...

Yes, Billy was an educator and all that. But you don't sit down at a piano with these guys unless you have enormous confidence that you can take your game. Remember, that's Duke Ellington and Willie "the Lion" Smith: