Born: May 22, 1961 Primary Instrument: French horn
Mark Taylor was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1961, started playing piano at age six, singing in the Chattanooga Boy’s Choir at seven and took up the clarinet at nine, later switching to bass clarinet, then French horn as a teenager. Intent on a career in orchestral and studio playing, Mark studied music at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he was introduced to jazz and to the music of Julius Watkins. He then transferred to the jazz and studio music program, studying with jazz education pioneer Jerry Coker and graduating in 1986. After graduate studies with Dave Holland and George Russell at New England Conservatory in Boston, Mark moved to New York where he has performed and recorded with an array of modern giants and released two CDs as a leader, QuietLand on Mapleshade Records and Circle Squared on his own Taymons Music label.
Mark has performed with orchestras, chamber ensembles, recording ensembles and jazz groups from trios to 30-piece big bands for as long as he can remember. “I’ve worked with jazz legends like drummer Max Roach as a featured soloist and critically acclaimed cutting-edge composers like Henry Threadgill (Very Very Circus) and Muhal Richard Abrams,” Mark says. “I’ve been on sessions for pop icons like BeBe Winans and Michael Bolton, recorded for small indie labels like Black Saint and major conglomerates like Sony records and performed in jazz clubs, festivals and concerts from Finland to Syria.”
“I see myself as a storyteller,” Mark says. “I am a composer and performer and I’ve always felt that a good concert should take listeners on a journey. That you can, in fact, present much more challenging information to an audience if you there’s some sort of narrative involved, whether or not it is explicitly stated. In my writing, I like to create a mood, a feeling in the band and then use my instruments to elaborate, embellish that mood. To use instrumental colour and timbre and range as characters to construct a musical story and allow the listener a little glimpse into the universe that I inhabit.”
In addition to his work as a performer, Mark has also been commissioned to compose for theatre and dance, placed two songs in the Dollface Productions independent feature film “The Girl”, scored the documentaries, “A String of Pearls”, and “9/11: The Forgotten Underdogs”, and created music, sound design and audio post for “Zero Down O.A.C.”, a dark comedy by Canadian filmmaker Aaron Moseson. Mark is currently working on a series of transcriptions of music associated with seminal jazz/ragtime bandleader James Reese Europe’s 369th “Hellfighters” military band for the Brooklyn Repertory Ensemble.
Taylor's Horn sound has been described as “rapturous” and “golden” (Coda Magazine); “as fluid and limpid as (the) flute, and as gnarly as (the) alto.” (JazzTimes). His innovative playing has won him recognition by such legendary artists as Max Roach, who said, “Mark Taylor is a virtuoso instrumentalist...there is no one dealing with the french horn or the music the way Mark is doing.”
”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
Circle Squared
Taymons Music
2003
Personnel: Myra Melford: Piano, Brad Jones: Bass, Matt Wilson: Drums.
QuietLand
Mapleshade Records
1997
Personnel: Myra Melford: Piano, Fred Hopkins: Bass, Warren Smith: Percussion, Steve Wilson/Steve Berrios: Drums, Bourque Simmons: Voice.
As A Side Musician
Woodblock Prints
Harris Eisenstadt
NoBusiness Records
2010
Garabatos, Vol. 1
Positive Catastrophe
Cuneiform Records
2009
Guewel
Harris Eisenstadt
Clean Feed
2008
Holly Cole
Holly Cole
Alert Records
2007
Word
Jessica Jones Quartet
New Artists
2008
Nod
Jessica Jones
New Artists
2004
Pragmatic Optimism
Brooklyn Repertory Ensemble
360 Music
2006
Natural Cultural Forces
Warren Smith
Engine
2008
Race Cards
Warren Smith
FreedomArts Records
2004
Book of the Storm
Rob Reddy’s Small Town
ReddyMusic
2008
A Hundred Jumping Devils
Rob Reddy’s Gift Horse
ReddyMusic
2007
Too Much Sugar For A Dime
Henry Threadgill Very Very Circus
Axiom
1993
Carry the Day
Henry Threadgill Very Very Circus
Columbia
1994
Makin’ A Move
Henry Threadgill Very Very Circus
Columbia
1995
Live at Koncepts
Henry Threadgill Very Very Circus
Taylor Made
1991
Brand New Bag
Ebony Brass Quintet
Mapleshade Records
1995
While You Were Out
Orange Then Blue
GM Records
1992
Blu Blu Blu
Muhal Richard Abrams
Black Saint
1990
Jumpin’ In The Future
Gunther Schuller
GM Records
1988
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Primary Instrument:
French horn
Location:
New York, NY
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
Marcinkiewicz "Mark Taylor Artist Model" mouthpiece (endorsing artist)
Yamaha M203 "Marching" Mellophone w/IYM "Larry Kerchener" mouthpiece
ProTec cases (endorsing artist)
