SAM ‘The Man’ TAYLOR
A “certified honking legend”, Sam Taylor was renowned for his superb tone and hard-driving energy. Starting out with the likes of ‘Scat Man’ Crothers and Lucky Millinder, Sam spent six years touring the world with Cab Calloway’s band, then working as a first-call session man for Louis Jordan and Ray Charles. Sam contributed the sax solo to Big Joe Williams’ ‘Shake Rattle an’ Roll’ and many other R&B hits before taking over the bandleading duties on Alan Freed’s ‘Rock’n’Roll Dance Party’ on network radio. He played sax and clarinet on an album of poetry made by Langston Hughes in 1958, and his solo albums usually had a ‘Misty’ theme, with ‘Blue Mist’, ‘Misty Mood’ and ‘Mist of the Orient’. He led his band The Blues Chasers through the 60s and most of the 70s before retiring from music. His album ‘Swingsation’, released in 1999 nearly ten years after his death, showed an R&B sax-man at the top of his game when the session was recorded in the mid-50s.
