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Joel Grant Taylor

Joel Grant Taylor has been active as a composer/multi-instrumentalist in the experimental and free music scenes since 1975, in San Francisco, Portland, OR, and New York. He is a founding member of the Future Primitive Ensemble of San Francisco, a seminal new music ensemble of the mid-70s and early 80s. Since that time he has played in a variety of groups, including the Hawley Currens Ensemble (mid 80s in the Bay Area), and Nyquist (late 90s in New York). Joel plays using analog synthesizers and laptop, and the piano, and also plays the shakuhachi, a Japanese end-blown flute, and the suling, an Indonesian fipple flute. His compositional activities range from structured works for improvisors, to classical orchestra and chamber works, to computer music and works for Javanese Gamelan. He is also a proponent of free, or unstructured, improvisation, as well as structured improvisation, and jazz. He currently lives in Starkville, Mississippi.

Gear

Japanese shakuhachi, various makers including myself. Javanese suling, various makers including myself. Electronics: Serge synthesizer, and self-constructed electronics. Laptop or computer, various models over the years. I currently use the program Max/MSP a lot in improvisation, and a large variety of software for composition and recording work Keyboards, various, including acoustic piano, DX7, and other electronic keyboards.


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