Born in 1921 in Greenville, N.C., Billy Taylor moved to Washington, D.C., at age 5. He grew up in a musical family and tried his hand at various musical instruments, including guitar, drums and saxophone, but was most successful at the piano.

Taylor graduated from Virginia State University with a degree in music in 1942,and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He then made a beeline for the bebop scene in New York City. Taylor quickly became entrenched in the city’s hothouse jazz community: Within one week, he was invited to join Ben Webster‘s group, and also played with Oscar Pettiford, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach and the legendary Art Tatum, who became a mentor to the young pianist.

After a brief tour of Europe with the Don Redman Orchestra, the first by a jazz band post-WWII, Taylor was hired as the house pianist at Birdland in New York. The gig afforded him the ultimate jazz education, as he was able to sit in with all of the jazz greats who performed at the legendary venue. He stayed on at Birdland longer than any other pianist in the history of the club. During this time, Taylor also began his long career as a composer and recording artist: He wrote more than 300 songs and recorded as a leader on labels including Savoy, Prestige, Riverside, Impulse! and later his own Taylor-Made label.

Billy Taylor made jazz education a central part of his life. Early on, he began publishing instructional books on jazz, and earned a Ph.D in music education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. In the early 1960s, he founded the Jazzmobile, a program which provided arts education via workshops, master classes, lecture demonstrations, arts enrichment programs, outdoor summer mobile concerts and special projects. He produced a Peabody Award-winning special based on the Jazzmobile for NPR in 1981. Taylor also did extensive work in television: He was the music director for NBC’s The Subject Is Jazz, and he led the band on The David Frost Show.

In his lifetime, Taylor received 23 honorary doctorates for his work as a jazz educator and ambassador. He also earned an Emmy, a Grammy, two Peabody Awards, the National Medal of Arts, the Tiffany Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from Downbeat magazine, and election to the Hall of Fame for the International Association for Jazz Education. He served as the artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and was one of only three jazz musicians to be appointed to the National Council of the Arts.

Dr. Billy Taylor died after a heart attack on Dec. 28, 2010, at age 89. His life and legacy were honored in a memorial service at Harlem’s Riverside Church on Jan. 11, 2011, which featured performances by his bassist Chip Jackson and drummer Winard Harper, along with trumpeter Jimmy Owens, tenor saxophonist Frank Wess, vocalist Cassandra Wilson and fellow pianists Geri Allen and Christian Sands.

On this episode of Piano Jazz, recorded in front of an audience at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Taylor performs a set of mostly original tunes, including “In Loving Memory” and “If You Really Are Concerned.” Host Marian McPartland performs her “Portrait of Billy Taylor,” and joins him for duets on the standards “Lullaby in Rhythm” and “These Foolish Things.”

Originally recorded March 4, 2007. Originally broadcast Oct. 2, 2007.

Written by Grant Jackson from NPR

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

JOIN MAURICE LYNCH MUSIC: TO HELP – JOSH MILAN VCELEBRATE – HIS NEW CD & BOOK RELEASE ON MARCH 30^TH 2017 – IT IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN AS WE ARE TREATED TO A NIGHT OF JOSH MILAN III LIVE WITH LIVE BAND !!!! THE RECORD RELEASE PARTY FOR THE LONG AWAITED SOLO ALBUM IS ABOUT TO TURN THE VOLUME UP…CD’S WILL BE ON SALE FOR A ONE NIGHT ONLY PRICE OF $20 AS WILL COPIES OF JOSH ‘S NEW BOOK “ IN MY OWN WOEDS”! COME TO CIELO 18 LITTLE W 12 ST DROP $15 AND LETS SHAKE IT UP TO THE SOUNDS OF THE GENIUS!!!!!!!!

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During Black History Month Producer Maurice Lynch would like to salute Black History Maker Legendary Style Icon & Model Pat Cleveland.

Pat Cleveland was born in New York City on June 23, 1950. Her father, Johnny Johnston, was a saxophonist; her mother, Lady Bird Cleveland, a painter. After her parents separated, Cleveland was raised by her mother in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. She graduated from New York’s High School of Art and Design in 1969.

Cleveland’s career as a fashion model began in 1966 when she was spotted on a New York subway by Carrie Donovan, an assistant editor at Vogue magazine. She first modeled as a live mannequin in Ebony’s Fashion Fair, and then for Vogue magazine. In 1970, Cleveland relocated to Paris, France, where she worked with illustrator Antonio Lopez and became a house model for Karl Lagerfeld’s Chloé. She modeled for designers such as Valentino, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent, Thierry Mugler and Christian Dior. In 1973, Cleveland was part of the benefit fashion show at the Palace of Versailles in France.

Cleveland returned to the United States in 1974, and continued modeling into the 1980s. She also established a modeling agency in Milan, Italy, and published a volume of poetry in 2001 entitled In The Spirit Of Grace. In 2003, Cleveland returned to the fashion runway, walking for designers Bill Blass and Stephen Burrows, and at Chanel, with her daughter, Anna van Ravenstein. Cleveland also modeled with her daughter for designer Zac Posen in 2013.

Cleveland has appeared in countless fashion spreads and on the covers of such magazines as Vanity Fair, Essence, Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, L’Officiel, and GQ. In addition, she appeared in advertisement campaigns for Vidal Sasoon and Karl Lagerfeld, and has been photographed by Steven Meisel and Andy Warhol. In 2010, Cleveland appeared as a guest judge in season fourteen of America’s Next Top Model. That same year, she appeared in the documentary Ultrasuede, In Search of Halston. In 2012, Cleveland was featured in two more fashion documentaries, Versailles ’73: American Runway Revolution and About Face: Supermodels Then and Now.

Cleveland is married to Paul van Ravenstein. They have two children: Noel and Anna.

Pat Cleveland was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on August 14, 2014.

Producer Maurice Lynch had the opportunity to produce Ms. Cleveland performing " Tonight Josephine a tribute to Josephine Baker. The duo single is available on ITunes http://mauricelynchmusic.com/tonightjosephine-patcleveland/

http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/pat-cleveland

http://www.papermag.com/the-15-best-female-models-of-all-time-ranked-in-order-1427573835.html

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/models/a16102/pat-cleveland-on-conquering-racism-to-become-the-first-black-supermodel/

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/g5504/stylish-older-women/

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