“Taylor has the rare ability to drive a band with constantly shifting rhythmic and melodic patterns, often layering them on top of one another, without ever overpowering the group, helping, directing, but never getting in the way. His strength is quiet power and he directs the group as an instrumentalist but much in the manner of a composer and arranger.”
Photo by Karl Otto
Jonathan Barahal Taylor is a Percussionist, Composer, and Improviser based in Detroit. An avid collaborator, He co-leads a number of diverse projects, Including the art-rock quartet saajtak, Teiku, which reimagines aurally transmitted ancestral Jewish melodies in a Creative Music context, Root Beneath Bones, a solo project for drums and electronics, and Mover, which performs a constantly shifting modular suite of Taylor’s compositions and graphic scores.
“[Taylor’s] compositions struck a balance between form and freedom ... This was music both for head and heart, always with a bluesy sensibility even during the more adventurous moments”
“Played magnificently ”
Taylor has played with some of the most revered names in Jazz and Creative Music, Including Wadada Leo Smith, John Lindberg, Tomeka Reid, Angelica Sanchez, Dave Liebman, Michael Formanek, Karl Berger, and Jaribu Shahid, and has performed at the DC Jazz Festival, EdgeFest, The Jazz Gallery In New York, the Detroit Jazz Festival, The Toronto Jazz Festival, The International Association of Schools of Jazz Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, and in 2019 toured Japan with the art-rock band Throwaway. He attended the Banff Centre’s International Workshop for Jazz and Creative music under the direction of Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey in 2013 and 2018, and maintains studies in Tabla and Hindustani Music with Sri Souma Kanti Mukerjee, disciple of the late master of the Benares Gharana, Pt. Chhote Lal Mishra. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he earned a BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies, studying with Geri Allen, Andrew Bishop, Ellen Rowe, Evan Chambers, Mark Kirschenmann, Michael Gould, Stephen Rush, and Sean Dobbins.
“When Jonathan Taylor was drumming ... it was carefully crafted chaos ”
“A mature and tasteful drummer not interested one bit in wrangling the spotlight ”