Bass trombonist David Taylor studied with Davis Shuman at The Juilliard School, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He began his performing career in 1967 as a member of Leopold Stokowski’s American Symphony Orchestra and appeared with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. Almost simultaneously, he was a member of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis jazz band, and he has performed and recorded with such jazz and pop artists as Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Quincy Jones, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Aretha Franklin, as well as with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Wynton Marsalis, the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Basel Sinfonietta, and the Adelaide Philharmonic. In 1984, at the age of forty, Taylor gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall, followed by two further New York recitals. He won the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Most Valuable Player Award for five consecutive years (1982-86), and in 1987 he was awarded the NARAS Most Valuable Player Virtuoso Award—an honor accorded no other bass trombonist. Since 1989 Taylor has taught at the Manhattan School of Music as well as privately.