RIP Sam Bluzman Taylor

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Permalink Reply by Rick Lusher on January 6, 2009 at 4:10pm

Bill Wax will pay tribute to Sam Taylor on XM/Sirius Channel 74

Wednesday Jan 7 around 4PM Eastern Time

If you don't have an XM/Sirius receiver

and if you are near a computer, you can listen On-Line for three days

by going here

http://www.sirius.com/freetrial/register

When The Player comes up
A) Select Music

B) Select Jazz/Blues

C) Select 74 BB King's Bluesville

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Permalink Reply by Greg Sarni on January 6, 2009 at 6:07pm

Thanks for the head's up Rick. I will also honor Sam tomorrow on WBRS True Blues 10 AM - Noon ET. I am going to feature some unreleased tracks from hi 2003 Boston Blues Festival appearance.
wbrs.org

I hope he is at rest, but I'll miss his gift.

G

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Permalink Reply by NICOLE HART on January 6, 2009 at 4:26pm

Hi, Greg: I just finished posting a blog about Sam on myspace: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID...

If you don't mind, I'll post it here, too:

My friend Suzanne Foschino called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that Sam "The Bluzman" Taylor had passed away. I appreciated so much that she let me find out personally, rather than in a newsblast. Sam Taylor touched the lives of many, many people, but in particular he was a major influence, mentor, and icon for local musicians on the Long Island and Metro New York music scenes. I want to write about that here, as that is part of my personal experience. I first became aware of Sam Taylor several years ago by a woman named Marjorie who told me she was booking him. I checked out his music and he blew me away. I couldn't believe this amazing musician was living right here and still performing. The recording I heard was "Bluzman Back Home", recorded live at the 2005 Riverhead Blues Festival. I have also performed this festival, in 2003, 2005 & 2006. This is an amazing recording! You can find it, as well as many others, on CD Baby: www.cdbaby.com/cd/samtaylor05

In 2007, my band performed Paula Jean's Supper club and, in the middle of my set, Sam walked in. He had been invited to hear me by his lady, Judy Chin, who had bought my independent CD on CD Baby and told Sam he should come hear me. I had never met Sam before but I knew who he was the moment he walked into the room, wearing a thick, white cotton turtleneck and his trademark captain's hat. I was nervous as hell but did my darndest to sing my heart out. After the first set Judy brought me over to meet Sam, and he asked me if he could sing with me. I flipped out, and we decided to share "Knock On Wood." Man, he took me to school. Singing next to him on stage, I was fascinated by the way he focused his communication and just propelled his being across the mic and into the atmosphere. I did my best to keep up with him, but I was more intent on feeling him. He had magic, chemistry, star power, technique, blood, guts…simply everything. I was and am so very honored he came to see me that night, and thank God I had the sense to take a picture. He asked me if I would be interested in recording with him, and of course I said yes I would.

Right after that night, he fell ill, to my knowledge, for the first time. I think he may have already been battling with cancer but was keeping it under wraps. Other musicians reading this, please feel free to let me know if this is not the case.

Suzanne has an annual barbeque and jam that she has been trying to get me to for the last 3-4 years. Every year, Sam would come, along with a lot of musicians on the scene and they would eat, party, and play into the night. I am such a gig hound that every year I have been working and not able to make it. Now I regret it. Not the working part, of course, but that I was never there when Sam was alive.

The last time I saw Sam was in 2007 when I was performing at the Great South Bay Music Festival. We shared a trailer with Sam and Bernard Allison, and various other musicians, such as Pam Betti, stopped in to make the hang. Her husband, Scott Grimaldi, took photos and, hopefully, some day I will see them. Violinist Heather Hardy was playing with Sam that night, and she was hanging out, too, as was Sam's drummer, Vic Odom and his guitarist, Gary Sellars.

I was relaxed and listening to these guys chat, joke and tell stories, when I got a call from my drummer, Joe Piteo, telling me he was stuck on the Long Island Expressway in wall to wall traffic. He also happened to have our guitarist, Gil Parris, in the car with him… Our show was in less than an hour! I realized they were not going to make it in time. I have worked with Gary Sellars previously on another show we'd done on Long Island, and he is a fantastic real deal blues guitarist, but I had never worked with Vic. I looked at Sam with "Deer-in-the-Headlights" eyes and asked him if I could "borrow" his band. Without hesitation, he said, "Sure!"

I rearranged our set from our originals and other material to standard 1, 4, 5 progression blues tunes. When we took the stage, I told Gary the keys and Vic the feels, and thank God for my bassist, Vonnie Hudson and Musical director and keyboardist Lance Ong. I have heard recordings from that night and, in some ways, I preferred that material, as there was a raw, simple, earnest quality about that performance. I thanked Sam from the stage for lending me his bandmates and, later, got to hear him perform with Gary and Vic. As usual, the crowd went wild for him!

That is the last time I saw Sam.

There are many more musicians on Long Island who have much more personal contact with Sam, but this is my story and I am grateful with all my heart for the experience.

Sam, thank you for touching my life, and the lives of so many others, on so many levels. I am comforted to know that the pain you must have felt is now lifted for good, and your spirit is free.

I have included the Obituary from New York Newsday here, as well as some info from Wikipedia.

Newsday.com

Famed singer Sam Taylor, 74, of Islandia dies

BY GLENN GAMBOA

glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

7:42 PM EST, January 5, 2009

Sam "The Bluzman" Taylor, the singer-songwriter and guitarist whose music has been recorded by everyone from Elvis Presley and Son Seals to DMX and EPMD, died Monday at his home in Islandia of complications associated with heart disease. He was 74.

One of the first inductees into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and an inductee into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1995, Taylor built a stellar reputation in blues and R&B over nearly five decades of work, as a solo performer and as a guitarist with Otis Redding, The Isley Brothers, and Sam and Dave.


"He was one of the last of the great bluesmen," said his friend Richard L'Hommedieu, co-founder of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. "He's created decades of wonderful music. It's a great loss."

Taylor was part of Joey Dee & The Starlighters when they had their hit "Peppermint Twist" in 1962 and when he left the group, he recommended that a young guitarist named Jimmy James, later known as Jimi Hendrix, be his replacement. He worked with B.T. Express when they had their string of No. 1 R&B hits "Do It (Til You're Satisfied)" and "Express" in 1974 and 1975.


But Taylor was best known for his own blues work - more than 12 albums, including "I Came from Dirt" and 2004's "Voice of the Blues" - and his regular appearances at Long Island blues clubs.

Vic Calabro was looking forward to Taylor singing at his 53rd birthday party at Bobbique's in Patchogue on Wednesday night. Though Taylor had been ill for several months, he had been doing well enough in recent weeks that he planned to perform on Wednesday, said Calabro, who now plans to make his party into a memorial.

"He was a great man," Calabro said. "He lived a great life and he just loved making people happy with his music."

For Taylor, one of his career moments that made him happiest was his induction into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. "So many Long Island musicians have said they were from New York instead of Long Island because they thought it helped them," Taylor said that night. "I've been saying I've been from Long Island since 1955. I'm so proud to be here. It's giving me goosebumps just thinking about it."

Taylor is survived by three daughters, Sandra Taylor, Daionae Sparks, and Donna Brown, and a son, Kevin Taylor; 13 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Funeral services were pending.

Copyright © 2009, Newsday Inc.

Also please see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor_(blues_musician)

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