Biography
Melvin Taylor, the Chicago-based guitarist, commands a devoted following across Europe, although domestic listeners may require more time to appreciate the depth of his abilities as a blues performer. His inherent versatility across genres has complicated wider recognition at home, since he moves with equal fluency between jazz and blues, yet a series of Evidence Music releases has lately solidified his standing specifically as a blues guitarist. He may rank as the most gifted guitarist to appear since Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Born in Mississippi, Taylor moved with his family to Chicago in 1962. Guitar lessons arrived through his mother’s brother, Uncle Floyd Vaughan, whose informal sessions with friends centered on material by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, and Howlin’ Wolf. By age twelve Taylor was already joining his uncle and other adults during those gatherings. Almost entirely self-taught, he mastered slide, fingerpicking, and flat-picking approaches by studying recordings of B.B. King, Albert King, and Jimi Hendrix.
As a teenager he entered the Transistors, a band managed by his future father-in-law, and the group gained notice performing 1970s popular music at talent shows and nightclubs. After the Transistors disbanded in the early 1980s, Taylor concentrated once more on blues in Chicago’s West Side clubs. Pianist Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins soon recruited him for European engagements; Taylor spent a year with the Legendary Blues Band and made such an impression that club and festival organizers requested return appearances with his own ensemble. Since the late 1980s he has toured Europe regularly, often supported by former Transistors members, and has opened for B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Santana, George Benson, and Canned Heat.
Beyond guitar influences such as Albert King, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Taylor absorbed the jazz phrasing of George Benson and Wes Montgomery and wove those elements into his own style.
His catalog includes two albums first issued on a French label and later reissued by Pennsylvania-based Evidence Music: Blues on the Run, recorded in 1982, and Melvin Taylor Plays the Blues for You from 1984. Back in the United States he built further interest through marathon sets at Rosa’s Lounge and other Chicago venues. Several smaller labels pursued him without success until Evidence Music signed him in 1995; working with blues impresario John Snyder, he recorded his label debut, Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band, which featured his original compositions. He returned late in 1996 for the follow-up, Dirty Pool. That debut remains Evidence’s best-selling title to date. Both albums display his commanding guitar work and distinctive treatments of classic Chicago blues numbers. Bang the Bell arrived in 2000 with provocative cover art and a funk-tinged approach, yet his 2002 collaboration Rendezvous with the Blues, recorded with Lucky Peterson and Mato Nanji, established him as a fixture in American blues and roots rock.
Born in Mississippi, Taylor moved with his family to Chicago in 1962. Guitar lessons arrived through his mother’s brother, Uncle Floyd Vaughan, whose informal sessions with friends centered on material by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, and Howlin’ Wolf. By age twelve Taylor was already joining his uncle and other adults during those gatherings. Almost entirely self-taught, he mastered slide, fingerpicking, and flat-picking approaches by studying recordings of B.B. King, Albert King, and Jimi Hendrix.
As a teenager he entered the Transistors, a band managed by his future father-in-law, and the group gained notice performing 1970s popular music at talent shows and nightclubs. After the Transistors disbanded in the early 1980s, Taylor concentrated once more on blues in Chicago’s West Side clubs. Pianist Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins soon recruited him for European engagements; Taylor spent a year with the Legendary Blues Band and made such an impression that club and festival organizers requested return appearances with his own ensemble. Since the late 1980s he has toured Europe regularly, often supported by former Transistors members, and has opened for B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Santana, George Benson, and Canned Heat.
Beyond guitar influences such as Albert King, B.B. King, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Taylor absorbed the jazz phrasing of George Benson and Wes Montgomery and wove those elements into his own style.
His catalog includes two albums first issued on a French label and later reissued by Pennsylvania-based Evidence Music: Blues on the Run, recorded in 1982, and Melvin Taylor Plays the Blues for You from 1984. Back in the United States he built further interest through marathon sets at Rosa’s Lounge and other Chicago venues. Several smaller labels pursued him without success until Evidence Music signed him in 1995; working with blues impresario John Snyder, he recorded his label debut, Melvin Taylor and the Slack Band, which featured his original compositions. He returned late in 1996 for the follow-up, Dirty Pool. That debut remains Evidence’s best-selling title to date. Both albums display his commanding guitar work and distinctive treatments of classic Chicago blues numbers. Bang the Bell arrived in 2000 with provocative cover art and a funk-tinged approach, yet his 2002 collaboration Rendezvous with the Blues, recorded with Lucky Peterson and Mato Nanji, established him as a fixture in American blues and roots rock.
Albums
Singles
