PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM 103 Piano Prodigy Taylor was born into a musical household, the offspring of two radio DJs from Indiana who fell in love, married and eventually moved to the Bay. But it was his sister Shannon, also a pianist, who catapulted him into musical pursuits. Not long after jamming with The Doobie Brothers at Shoreline Amphitheatre to their song “Listen to the Music,” Shannon passed away from leukemia. “She died one day before her high school graduation,” Taylor says. He began piano lessons soon after, at the age of four. Though Taylor might be a polished performer today, his first recital was less than auspicious. “I started crying and I ran off,” he reminisces with a smile. “And then I yelled out, ‘Do I still get a PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: JIM FUNG - PENINSULA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA donut?’” His stage fright didn’t last long however, and he landed his first paid gig at eight. At that early age, little Taylor was all about smooth jazz. “I would fall asleep listening to that every night,” he says, adding that he looked up to pianist and composer David Benoit, who would later become his mentor. “I would try to pretend like I was him and emulate him because I liked the energy, the funkiness, the playfulness,” he describes. “I was him for Halloween!” For the next few years, Taylor played background music at bars and restaurants. “I was able to get a lot of the ‘paying your dues’ young, which I’m grateful for,” he says. On the cusp of his teens, this 12-year-old had already played alongside his musical idol David, including at a concert at Sunset Magazine’s picturesque gardens in Menlo Park. But it was also the year Taylor’s dad passed away from cancer. Not long afterward, he would tell a local newspaper, “I'm a musician and so my music helps me get through things … I can take out anger and sadness, and the other 20 zillion feelings that people get, on the piano.” Staying strong, Taylor started a band with his friends at the age of 13, dropped his first album Tay’s Groove at 14 and started teaching at Stanford Jazz Workshops at 15. “So many people in this area gave me a chance,” Taylor shares, mentioning promoter and jazz historian Herb Wong, the folks at the San Jose Jazz Society and countless others who took him under their wings and set him up for success. By the time he reached his college years, he’d already recorded four albums.
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