0
Ray Nance
Ray Nance
American musician
1
Harry Carney
Harry Carney
American jazz musician
2
Barney Bigard
Barney Bigard
American jazz clarinetist, jazz musician
3
Jimmy Blanton
Jimmy Blanton
American musician
4
Lawrence Brown
Lawrence Brown
jazz trombonist
5
Johnny Hodges
Johnny Hodges
American alto saxophonist
6
Cootie Williams
Cootie Williams
American trumpeter
7
Sonny Greer
Sonny Greer
American jazz drummer
8
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Hawkins
American jazz saxophonist
9
Metronome All-Stars
Metronome All-Stars
band that plays jazz
10
Butch Ballard
Butch Ballard
American jazz drummer
11
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
American jazz musician, composer and band leader
12
Lloyd Trotman
Lloyd Trotman
American musician
13
Ben Webster
Ben Webster
American saxophonist
14
Money Johnson
Money Johnson
American musician
15
Bubber Miley
Bubber Miley
American jazz trumpet and cornet player, composer
16
Shorty Baker
Shorty Baker
American musician
17
Willie Cook
Willie Cook
American musician
18
Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor
American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster, and educator
19
John Simmons
John Simmons
American jazz bassist
20
Taft Jordan
Taft Jordan
Jazz trumpeter
21
Russell Procope
Russell Procope
American musician
22
Billy Byers
Billy Byers
American jazz trombonist and arranger (1927-1996)
23
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford
American musician
24
Skeeter Best
Skeeter Best
American musician
25
Bill Berry
Bill Berry
American musician
26
Cat Anderson
Cat Anderson
American jazz trumpeter
27
Sam Woodyard
Sam Woodyard
American jazz drummer
28
Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine
American musician
29
Herbie Jones
Herbie Jones
American musician
30
Hayes Alvis
Hayes Alvis
musician
31
Al Lucas
Al Lucas
Canadian jazz musician
32
Les Spann
Les Spann
American guitarist
33
Jimmy Hamilton
Jimmy Hamilton
American jazz musician
34
Butch Warren
Butch Warren
American musician
35
Norris Turney
Norris Turney
American musician
Billy Taylor
American jazz bassist

Billy Taylor

Intro
American jazz bassist
Genres
Music

William Taylor Sr. (April 3, 1906 – September 2, 1986) was an American jazz bassist. He was born Washington, D.C. and died in Fairfax, Virginia.

Taylor began playing tuba but later picked up bass alongside it. After moving to New York City in 1924, he played with Elmer Snowden (1925), Willie Gant and Arthur Gibbs (1926), Charlie Johnson (1927–29, 1932–33), Duke Ellington (1928), McKinney's Cotton Pickers (1929–31), Fats Waller (1934), and Fletcher Henderson. He recorded with Jelly Roll Morton on three sessions in 1930. From 1935 to 1940, he again played with Ellington, and it is for this association that he is best remembered; he often played with a second bassist in the orchestra, at times Hayes Alvis or Jimmie Blanton. During that time, he also recorded with Cootie Williams and Johnny Hodges. In the 1940s, he played with Coleman Hawkins (1940), Red Allen (1940–41), Joe Sullivan (1942), Raymond Scott (1942–43), Cootie Williams (1944), Barney Bigard (1944–45), Benny Morton (1945), and Cozy Cole (1945). Later in the decade he played freelance in New York before moving back to Washington, D.C. in 1949. He led his own ensemble for Keynote Records in 1944.