Billy Taylor, Jr.

US jazz bassist from Washington. Born Dec. 31, 1925, died Nov. 1977. Son of renowed jazz bassist Billy Taylor Sr.. While still in elementary school, he went to live in New York. As a teenager, he began frequenting jazz clubs in Brooklyn and associating with then-fledgling musicians such, as Max Roach and Cecil Payne. Unbeknownst to his father, Billy Taylor Sr., who was bassist with Duke Ellington, the younger man taught himself to play bass. Taylor worked at Minton's Playhouse, a Harlem club where musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillispie jammed and created modern jazz. The bassist also toured with pianist Eddie Heywood in the 1940s when the latter was popular. Serving in the Army from 1944 to 1948, returned to Washington in 1950, the bassist began performing at clubs around the city and went to work at the Department of the Interior. Billy Taylor Jr performed around Washington for 27 years. From 1956 to 1964, he played in the house band at the Howard Theater. He later played in the Eddie Phyfe Trio at the old Cafe Lounge, with the John Phillips Trio at Blues Alley, and with the Dick Morgan Trio at W. H. Bone and Co.