caption associated_acts death_date death_place birth_name birth_place years_active landscape background birth_date instrument genre image article_title name occupation
billy taylor performing a jazzmobile concert 1977 charlie mcbride nancy wilson dee dee bridgewater cyrus chestnut parker dizzy gillespie miles davis herbie mann christian 28 december 2010 manhattan , new york , u.s. william taylor greenville , north carolina , u.s. 1944 -- 2010 yes non_vocal_instrumentalist 24 july 1921 piano jazz , hard bop billy_taylor _ -lrb- jazz -rrb- . jpg billy taylor
 billy taylor musician , composer , educator , broadcaster
billy taylor

william `` billy '' taylor -lrb- july 24 , 1921 -- december 28 , 2010 -rrb- was an american jazz pianist , composer , broadcaster and educator .
he was the robert l. jones distinguished professor of music at east carolina university in greenville , and from 1994 was the artistic director for jazz at the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts in washington , d.c. .
a jazz activist , taylor sat on the honorary founders board of the jazz foundation of america , an organisation he started in 1989 , with ann ruckert , herb storfer and phoebe jacobs , to save the homes and the lives of america 's elderly jazz and blues musicians , later including musicians who survived hurricane katrina .
taylor was also a jazz educator , who lectured in colleges , served on panels and travelled worldwide as a jazz ambassador .
critic leonard feather once said , `` it is almost indisputable that dr. billy taylor is the world 's foremost spokesman for jazz . ''
