The only show in town

Otis Taylor

This Thursday & Friday, May 21^st & 22^nd, there is only one place you need to be. Be at Dazzle to see innovative bluesman, Otis Taylor, in performance with two of the best jazz musicians America has to offer: trumpeter/cornetist Ron Miles, and pianist Jason Moran. You miss this show, well, you really miss out. You drop the ball during the big game. You can’t reinvent an opportunity such as this. It’s what’s happening, baby, and there is nothing else going down either of these nights that can compare to witnessing this rare musical collaboration. “Be there or be square”, clichéd as it may be, rarely means as much as it does in pertaining to this event.

 

Audiences may know Taylor as the Boulder-based bluesman, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, who seemed to disappear from the international music scene in the mid-Seventies, after his style-transcending work with legendary guitarist Tommy Bolin, as the T&O Short Line.

 

In an illusion reminiscent of the batting of an eye, Taylor beamed back into the music world as a force to be reckoned, in the mid-Nineties, with the Shoelace Records release of “Blue-Eyed Monster”. Taylor continued making deep grooves from a new plough with subsequent releases such as 1998’s “When Negroes Walked the Earth”(Shoelace).This was followed by “White African” (NorthernBlues Music), in 2001, and 2002’s “Respect the Dead”. Taylor made his Telarc Records debut the next year with “Truth is not Fiction”, followed by 2004’s “Double V”. In 2005, Telarc released Taylor’s “Below the Fold”. His next recording for Telarc, “Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs” is schedule for release in June of this year. It is this recording that will be prominently featured at the Dazzle gigs, as it is the recording that sprung from Taylor’s desire to record with both Miles and Moran.

 

What makes Taylor so special is not simply the fact that he is an intense composer, a passionate guitarist, plays a zestful harmonica, or coaxes sound from a banjo like it strung to his life force. What makes Taylor truly unique is that he is among a few nuevo pioneers who are redefining, refocusing,on what blues means today, in our current environment, our times. His are not songs about women who done him wrong or rragging spiritual hunger seeking to fill the emptiness of the soul. Taylor’s blues are written for him, for us, for our time. Taylor nods toward all the socio-economic, racial, and political maneuvering one must make in the journey through today’s society, with a nod towards remembrance of those who molded him, us, and life as we live it today.

 

Some elements of Taylor’s music have been described as “Trance Blues”. But more to the point, Taylor’s music is alive with what the blues is becoming. He is directing where the music is going. Taylor’s music is roots, and it is current. It opens the door to whatever will come next. Taylor is many things: a sweetheart of a man, a tower of mas macho, a hauntingly stylish black man with Steve McQueen, cornflower-blue eyes.  Taylor is a true prophet of the blues to come. He is a voice crying in the urban wilderness. His message of hope vs. destruction is as compelling as any dynamic addictive substance, because, in essence, that is exactly what Taylor’s music is.

 

Adding the supremely talented Miles only enriches Taylor’s mix. Throughout the past two decades Miles has defined, and delivered, his own sound, remaining true to his own vision. Miles, who lives in Denver, and teaches at Auraria’s Metropolitan State College, has slowly, with dignified grace, created jazz music which is both true to the pure essence of what jazz is, and is also solidly true to his own personal vision. Respected by world-wide jazz fans, Miles is truly one on the best, if not the best, of his generation. In working on Taylor’s upcoming recording, Miles, almost blindly, put his trust in Taylor’s vision, and succeeded in creating the audible testimony of the sound in Taylor’s head.

 

Working alongside Miles is New York-based pianist Moran. Miles says Moran is,

 

“Jason is the greatest pianist out there today.”

 

Moran’s many accomplishments and accolades will support Miles’ claim. Moran, a former student of the incomparable Jaki Byard, currently has the jazz world as his oyster.The funny part of this theme is that Moran is, himself, the oyster’s pearl.

 

Taylor says that he was compelled to make this recording, at this time, after meeting Mora,n and having Miles vouch for the results of the possibilities of such an opportunity.

 

Recently, during an interview with Taylor, while he was in Spain, touring in support of English musician, Gary Moore, Taylor explained the motivation behind his new music.

 

“Well, I met Jason (Moran) .  We decided that we needed to just go ahead and do this, not just talk about it anymore. Just do it.”

 

The results are more than righteous. Listeners will hear Taylor’s vision, his message, but they will also hear  what their hearts filter into the music. An opportunity such as this is more than divine, or sublime. It just is. It is now.

 

Taylor encourages listeners to come out for these shows.

 

“Come and see the show. I tell you, They’ll hear something they’ve never heard or seen before.”

 

Don’t even imagine doubting these words.