NEWS

I am greatly saddened to hear of the passing of the legendary Hank Jones. At the age of 91, he was one of the most perfect, incredible, inventive, and kind human beings and musicians the world will ever know. I feel honored to have had the chance to briefly hang with him and play some tunes. I will always remember the very short time I got to spend with him at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival a few years ago.  Rest in peace sir, and thank you immensely for the beautiful mark you have left on this world. The classiest musician of all time, in my opinion.

My old email address on AOL was hacked, as I found out today. If anyone might have gotten some random advertisement from "tayjazz", ignore it please. Thanks and sorry!

Hey all,

I wanted to share some updates with you...

First of all, I have two tremendously exciting concerts coming up in the Bay Area that I hope all of my friends can come to.

We are doing two shows with my trio and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra.
Here's an article about these concerts in the San Francisco Classical Voice written by the great writer Jeff Kaliss.

In these concerts, we will be premiering a new composition of mine written for String Orchestra and Jazz Trio entitled "ReTrianon", and we will be also performing a set of trio compositions and playing another piece called "Ekta" by composer Brent Heisinger with the orchestra and tabla/sitar virtuoso Ashwin Batish.

These are going to be some seriously special concerts and I really hope my friends can make it out to these.

I also have some other news and updates. My new album, Daylight at Midnight has moved it's release date to August 10, 2010. The first opportunity to buy this CD will be on August 7, at the big CD release concert to close The Stanford Jazz Festival. My whole new band will be there, featuring Eric Harland on drums, Becca Stevens on vocals, and Harish Raghavan on bass, with some special guests as well. I can't wait....

Speaking of Stanford, I am honored to officially join the Advisory Board of the Stanford Jazz Workshop. SJW has been an extremely important part of my whole career and musical development through the years at every stage, and this will be my 11th year on the faculty this year. This year's workshops run from July 18 thru Aug 7, and there are incredible concerts all through there. The faculty this year includes Dave Douglas, Nicholas Payton, Joshua Redman, George Cables, Eric Harland, Reuben Rogers, Harish Raghavan, Larry Grenadier, Larry Goldings, and many more. There is still space for people of all ages to sign up for the workshops - check out www.StanfordJazz.org

I am excited to add some new dates to the calendar. I'm thrilled to be in the Gretchen Parlato band, and we will be on tour on and off throughout the rest of the year. Gretchen is one of my favorite musicians of all time, and people, and bandleaders. I'm also very stoked to begin working some with the great singer Janis Siegel, of the legendary group Manhattan Transfer and much great solo work. Look for a date or two in the fall on the East Coast. Another singer which I am obviously excited to work with is in my band - Becca Stevens. We will have many dates throughout the rest of the year to celebrate the release of the new album. The website will be as up-to-date as possible during all of these tours, so check back for updates on the concert schedule.

I wanted to mention a cool project I'm involved in - the Eric Harland band. He is one of the most virtuosic, symphonic, and transcendently powerful musicians you could ever hear. Let alone a drummer. And his band is great - features Julian Lage, Harish Raghavan, and Walter Smith III. His new record, "Voyager", will be out in early summer. Check out his website iHarland.com for more information on the release, and you can even watch a movie trailer about the project.

Cavs over the Suns in the NBA Finals in 6 games. LeBron finally wins it....

Hope to see a lot of friends at some upcoming gigs!
Peace, and Happy Cinco de Mayo......
Taylor

Hey everyone - 


I just finished playing with Nicholas Payton's group at the Village Vanguard this past week, and it was a truly great and memorable experience. It was my first time ever playing at the famous Village Vanguard, and I had chills walking in there the first night. The ghosts of Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Tommy Flanagan are so tangible, and although I've gone to many concerts there, it felt really cool and quite different to actually play there. A true honor, and it was some burning music!
 
If you missed the concert, but still would have wanted to hear it.....The Wednesday set was broadcast and recorded for NPR - here is a link to 
 
DOWNLOAD AN MP3 OR STREAM THE WHOLE SHOW - Free! Enjoy.....
 
In other news, I can finally reveal a few secrets.....
 
I'm releasing my 7th album called "Daylight at Midnight" on July 27, 2010 on Concord Records.
I am extremely excited and proud of this project - it features my trio of Eric Harland on drums and Harish Raghavan on bass, and also includes the incredible vocalist Becca Stevens. we did a lot of covers of Rock/pop tunes by bands such as Coldplay, Imogen Heap, Feist, Mute Math, Elliot Smith, and more, in addition to a few originals.

I'm excited to take the music in a new direction - it is a very different record than my previous ones. I'm so anxious to start playing this new music! A lot of tour dates are now posted, and tons more are being lined up - I hope to see some friends at an upcoming show - the concerts page is now pretty updated. I will post some samples of the new record as soon as I can! We are in the final stages of mastering and artwork. Takes a long time for records to be put out! The waiting is killing me...

BAY AREA FRIENDS - please come out to a solo piano show I'm doing on Mar 28 at the First Congregational Church in Palo Alto, CA. The proceeds of CD sales at this concert will all go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.
The more time passes after tragedies such as the earthquake in Haiti, the more help is needed in the massive rebuilding process. I hope that the music will inspire people to donate to this important fund further after the concert. For more information on this cause, go to www.ClintonBushHaitiFund.com

One more note: NBA Finals Prediction: Cleveland Cavaliers over Dallas Mavericks in 6 games. Shaq will ride off into the sunset with one last ring......Last year on Mar 16, I predicted "Lakers over Orlando in the Finals in 5 or 6 games". Lets see if I can it right get two years in a row....

Peace! Taylor

Hey everyone!
 
A lot of exciting gigs are coming up, and many more are planned to celebrate the release of my new album on Concord Records, due out on May 25, 2010. 
 
One concert coming up that I'm particularly excited about is a special rare duet concert with GERALD CLAYTON at the Edye Theater in Santa Monica.

http://www.GeraldClayton.com - this is his website - check his stuff out! He is unbelievable.

This is happening TOMORROW (January 30), and I would love to see all of my LA-based friends! It will be an immense hang...
 
Gerald is a pianist that I am very inspired by, and he is a good friend of mine. It has been wonderful to watch his group evolve and really take off - he is nominated for his first (of many to come) Grammy Award this year, for BEST JAZZ INSTRUMENTAL SOLO, and he is headlining with his own trio at places like the Village Vanguard  in New York, among many other premiere venues. 
 
It is a true honor to do a duo-piano show with him, especially in such a great-sounding intimate stage as the Edye Theatre at the Broad Stage.
 
There are some tickets still available, but reservations are highly recommended. Please go to
http://www.thebroadstage.com/index.php/257 for more information and tickets.
 
This one will be a cool one!
 
Hope to see you all in Santa Monica tomorrow!
 
Thanks for listening.....

Hey all!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while - I've mostly been busy preparing for a few gigs that are coming up that I am extremely excited about....

Friday, Jan 22, 2010 at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center - San Mateo, CA - and
Saturday, Jan 23, 2010 at the Flint Center - Cupertino, CA

Me and my new band "Free Agency" are performing with the PENINSULA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA!

Here's the link to information and tickets for this concert: www.PENINSULASYMPHONY.ORG

I am looking forward to these concerts more than any other concert in years!

on this Sunday, the San Jose Mercury News ran a story on the cover of the Lifestyle Section about this particular concert. Here is a link to this cool article....

http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_14182789?nclick_check=1

I'll be playing some Gerswhin (Rhapsody in Blue and a few more), and we're going to do a lot of my new compositions, with the full band and the orchestra - and I'm incredibly excited about this!!

On vocals will be Gretchen Parlato (www.GretchenParlato.com) and Becca Stevens (www.BeccaStevens.com). On extra keyboards will be Maya Kronfeld (www.myspace.com/mayakron), on bass will be Harish Raghavan (www.myspace.com/harishraghavan), and on drums will be Aaron McLendon (www.myspace.com/amacdrums).

If you are in the Bay Area, please please please come out for this one! Very much an event that doesnt happen every day, and I'm honored and fortunate to have the opportunity. The two venues are incredible as well, and there are some tickets still available....

Anyways, I hope to see some Bay Area friends there.... Be-friend me on Facebook too! I'll keep you posted on what I'm up to, and also some fool-proof NFL predictions and opinions periodically....

Happy New Year!
Peace, Tay

Hey all,

Well the NBA Finals have ended, the humidity is on full blast, and we are fully entering summer quicker than certainly I was ready for....I'm bracing myself for a lot of travel coming up!

I'm pretty bad at packing light, so this will be a good chance for me to figure out how to downsize a bit....

Anyways, the concerts are now updated with a lot of new dates....

As far as my own group goes, I am thrilled to do the first two concerts with my new group, "FREE AGENCY" in the next month. On June 27, we will premiere a lot of the new songs at a club called The Falcon in Marlboro, NY. Info on tickets is on the "Calendar" page. A really big gig for us will be at the Stanford Jazz Festival on July 26 - Dinkelspiel Auditorium. Always my favorite gig of the year, and this year will be the best ever! Lots of special guests, etc.

I'm excited that I've started working more with Nicholas Payton's group. He has always been one of my idols, and it's incredibly thrilling to get the chance to converse musically within in his group. We just did a really fun concert in DC on the National Mall with Karreim Riggins and Esperanza Spalding. There's a bootleg of it swimming around for those who are good at searching the internet.....really fun gig!! He is a truly inspiring musician and I'm learning a lot from getting the chance to work with him.

We will be doing some concerts in Amsterdam and at North Sea, and there will be more concerts to come in the fall and the spring.

I'm also looking forward to playing more with one of the most incredible, musical, and versatile vocalists in the world - Gretchen Parlato. I'm doing a bunch of dates with her group on the west coast, in NY, and in Spain.

Another great group which I'm privileged to be working with this summer is Ambrose Akinmusire's band. Ambrose is one of the true innovators of his instrument, and he has an amazing new CD out. Looking forward to all of this! (And the two off days I get at North Sea - wooooo!!!!)

Anyways just wanted to put out a note about the new dates - have a glance at the Calendar page and come by a show in your area!! I am looking forward to seeing a lot of friends on the road throughout the rest of the year....

Peace!!!
-Tay

Hey everyone!!

Happy New Year - I'm looking forward to an exciting and productive year of many brand new musical experiences. I've added a whole big handful of tour dates, so please check out the calendar section, and come out to some shows!

One gig coming up I'm especially excited about is a benefit for UC Berkeley's Jazz and Improvised Music Program on Feb 6 at Hertz Hall. I'll be playing in a trio with Jason Lewis and the great David Ewell, and there will be a Q&A and an opening act of a stellar student group. Please, please, please come to this if you are in the Bay Area in early February - tickets range from $15 to $25, and the proceeds benefit the kind of music program that needs to be paid more attention to, and I'm thrilled to be able to be a part of supporting it.

I also wanted to mention that I made the trek out to Washington DC to hear President Obama's inaugural speech a few days ago. We had to stand for 7 hours in the cramped cold (about 17 degrees and could only move half an inch either way), but the new President's message resonated with my numb, dead legs, and got my circulation flowing again. I'm really glad that I will get to tell my grandkids that I was there, even if all I could see was a damn Jumbotron.....

A few other highlights coming up this year are my first year teaching at Centrum - Jazz at Port Townsend. The lineup this year is ridiculous - I'm really honored to be a part of it. Another fun bunch of gigs coming up is a Japan tour with Reuben "Rolls Royce" Rogers and Eric Harland, as Reuben's trio. This will be in August in Tokyo, and I'm extremely excited to get out there again. Please check out ReubenRogers.com for more info on that.

I was thinking about this recently, and I would have to say that my top three performance highlights from 2008 would have been:

- Performing with my trio with the Peninsula Symphony in the Bay Area (repeat concert is coming in 2010!)

- Touring with the Eric Harland Band (Check out Eric's website - iHarland.com ....Eric is putting out a live record and DVD from our gigs in France - such positive, exciting music - really powerful stuff - can't wait till he releases it...

- Getting a chance to play with Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Jason Moran, Julian Lage, Richard Davis, and Charles McPherson all together in a super-octet at Stanford Jazz Workshop....I definitely will never forget that!
This year's Stanford Jazz Workshop was my favorite - I felt amazingly fortunate to get to play with so many amazing musicians there. It's always my favorite part of summer.

That's the update for now, hope you all are staying warmer than I am here. New York has redefined the term "winter" for me. This is the longest I've ever gone consecutively being able to see my breath in the air.....

Peace!!! - Tay

Hey everyone - just a real quick note to post a link to an interview I did a while back on the BBC, with the great Linley Hamilton - this link gives information about his show, which is quite cool.

Check it out and enjoy

Right now I'm in Paris, France on tour with the Eric Harland group having so much fun. Eric's music is really powerful stuff and its truly an honor to be playing with him.

Anyways, hope everyone's doing good!

Peace, Taylor

Hey everyone -

I am really excited to be out travelling again! I've been having some really fun concert opportunities with a mixture of different great musicians - hope to see you at a future concert......

The next two weeks I'm going to be gone on a European tour with Julian Lage as a duo. We are playing at the Pizza Express in London for two nights, then we are opening for the Maria Schneider Orchestra at Europa Freilicht Buhne in Germany, going to the Bix Club in Stuttgart right after, and closing the tour with a week in Vitoria, Spain. I'm really excited to get out there and see some places I haven't seen before!

The new album, "Let it Come to You" has been doing really nicely, and some new reviews are posted in the "About" section, including Downbeat Magazine and others. Thanks to all for your continued support for the album, and thanks especially to the radio community as well - it's been in the top ten on the Jazzweek National Airplay charts for about 9 weeks and even went as high as #2! I'm really excited to have the new music out there....

I wanted to take a second to talk about two records I think you'll enjoy - one comes out on August 19 called "Invisible Cinema" by Aaron Parks. Aaron is one of the most amazing, unique composers and improvisors in the jazz world. This is his first release on Blue Note Records and the sample music on his Myspace Page sounds incredible. Another project that you will enjoy is Gerald Clayton's new CD, which will also be released sometime fairly soon. Gerald is a master composer and pianist - he plays with so much passion and drive and has utter control over his instrument, combining the energy of hard-swinging music with the sophistication of modern harmony and rhythms - Check his website - www.GeraldClaytonMusic.com

Thats it for now - hope to see you this summer!
peace, Taylor

Hey everyone!

I'm excited to announce that the new album,

"Let It Come to You"

is now officially out and available everywhere!! Please check it out, and tell your friends!

I'm really looking forward to a fun tour season coming up - the next few concerts are at Scullers in Boston on Weds, May 14, and at the Jazz Standard in New York from May 15-18. Hope to see you at a concert coming up!


There have been some recent interviews, discussing the new project, and more. Here are a few of them:

EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE - Interview with Russell Trunk
JAZZ POLICE - Interview with Andrea Canter


I feel very grateful that there have been some really wonderful reviews recently. The "reviews" section on the "About" page has some of the newest reviews about "Let It Come to You". Here's a few recent ones:


BOSTON HERALD- Kevin R. Convey

ALL MUSIC GUIDE- Johnathan Widran

EJAZZNEWS- Glenn Astarita

MIDWEST RECORD- Chris Specter

For my German friends....
JAZZ ECHO

Please check back often for updates! I hope everyone has a great week!

Peace, TAY

Hey everyone!

I am so thrilled to announce the arrival of the new TaylorEigsti.com (or tayjazz.com for those of you who used to go to the old website). This website was created through the imaginitive eye of Judy Frisk, a master web designer who has been awesome to work with. Judy took a lot of my artwork and came up with really neat animations, and made a layout for the site that is easy to navigate, and loaded with cool features.

I hope you enjoy all of the new features, which are pretty extensive. There is a news page, where I will post any new cool events that are on the horizon, an updated calendar page, a bio page with many items available for press, full discography, a page with videos called "Media", a collection of different photos, a page highlighting new projects that I am starting, as well as a page featuring some of my artwork. I really hope you enjoy this, and feel free to leave a message on the "Contact" page.

Hope to see you at a future concert! There are quite a few of them coming up, so please just check the Calendar page for the most recent update to my schedule.......

Maybe I will still be inspired to post some of my NFL predictions here as well....unless the 49ers make me too depressed to think about football again......

PEACE!!!!

-Taylor