Lift Every Voice
And Sing!

September 19, 1929 - June 4, 2003

Welcome to the Shooby Taylor consortium.

› 07/20/07 - Shooby Taylor t-shirts available soon!

› 06/16/06 - Shooby Misunderstood: Legal release of Shooby Taylor delayed by record industry execs. Read more...

› 08/11/05 - Licenses being negotiated. Read more...

› 01/19/05 - Shooby's master reels are intact. William Taylor, Jr. has been holding his father's original recordings. They've been handed off to Irwin Chusid who, in January 2005, transfered them with the help of Innova Records/Composers Forum.
To quote Irwin: "There's about two albums' worth of first-rank recordings (pending licensing hurdles). What we found on these tapes is mesmerizing and historic."

› Clip of Shooby Taylor (aka William H. Taylor) performing at Amateur Night at the Apollo, sometime in 1983. Bittersweet.

› 09/09/03 - News of Shooby's passing.

› 11/10/02 - Shooby Taylor featured in the New York Times, November 10, 2002

› 08/28/02 - Shooby Taylor radio interview on WFMU (Scroll down to the 2:05:01 mark, where the show starts). Shooby Taylor joined Ken Freedman and Irwin Chusid as an honorary guest on WFMU. Listeners can hear several tracks never heard before, including Shooby riffing with Dexter Gordon, Babs Gonzales, and Miles Davis. Included in the hour long show is a discussion with Shooby about his history as a scat musician, as well as several excited calls from fans.
Note: Segments of this radio interview can be seen in Doug Stone's documentary "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You".

› What is available?
Only one tape, "Shooby Taylor, The Human Horn", has circulated for over 10 years among Shooby fans. Tracks from this tape exist here as MP3s. This cassette tape was sold as a fundraising premium by radio station WFMU-FM with the singer's permission. Outside of this well-known tape of favorites, there are about 50 "unreleased" Shooby songs. As mentioned above, Absolutely Kosher Records has plans to release a Shooby album.

› Lyrics page gradually being updated.

› The Beginning of The End of the Search for Shooby Taylor
Several years ago, nobody knew of Shooby Taylor's whereabouts. This site was originally formed as a mechanism for aiding the search for Shooby Taylor. Rick Goetz came along with the persistence to pick up the phone and begin calling every William Taylor in the five burroughs.

"I can't tell you what it sounds like. But with most first-time Shooby listeners this is what happens: The eyes glaze, the mouth frowns, then around a minute into one of his songs laughter spews." - Bat Guano

Today, thousands of Shooby Taylor fans stand together to share the joy of Shooby Taylor's music. Know someone who's down? Share the music!

For more detailed information, including interviews and photos over the last year of Shooby's re-discovery, see "Meetings with the Legendary Scat Man" by Irwin Chusid

Another fascinating project by Irwin Chusid: "Songs in the Key of Z"

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