Eddie Taylor (January 29, 1923 – December 25, 1985)
was an American
electric blues
Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplifier, amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the ...
guitarist and singer.
Biography
Born Edward Taylor in
Benoit, Mississippi
Benoit is a town in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 365.
History
The 1956 movie ''Baby Doll'' was shot on location at the Burrus House in Benoit; many local residents played in minor roles.
...
, as a boy Taylor taught himself to play the guitar. He spent his early years playing at venues around
Leland, Mississippi
Leland is a city in Washington County, Mississippi, United States. It is located within the Mississippi Delta, on the banks of Deer Creek. The population was 4,481 at the 2010 census. It was once a railway town and had long been a center of cott ...
, where he taught his friend
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...
to play the guitar.
With a guitar style deeply rooted in the
Mississippi Delta
The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...
tradition, Taylor moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1948.
Taylor never achieved the stardom of some of his contemporaries in the
Chicago blues
Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...
scene, he was nevertheless an integral part of that era. He is especially noted as a main
accompanist
Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles of ...
for Jimmy Reed; he also worked for
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
,
Big Walter Horton
Walter Horton (April 6, 1921 – December 8, 1981), known as Big Walter (Horton) or Walter 'Shakey' Horton, was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming, shy man, he is remembered as one of the premier harmonica players in the hi ...
,
Sam Lay
Samuel Julian Lay (March 20, 1935January 29, 2022) was an American drummer and vocalist who performed from the late 1950s as a blues and R&B musician alongside Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Paul Butterfield, and many others. He was inducted into ...
,
and others.
Earwig Music Company
Earwig Music Company is an American blues and jazz independent record label, founded by Michael Frank in October 1978 in Chicago.
From 1975 until 1977 Frank was employed by the Jazz Record Mart, like Bruce Iglauer of Alligator Records and Jim O ...
recorded him with
Kansas City Red
Arthur Lee Stevenson (May 7, 1926 – May 7, 1991), known as Kansas City Red, was an American blues drummer and vocalist who played a major role in the development of urban blues. He performed and recorded with many notable blues artists, such as ...
and
Big John Wrencher
Big John Wrencher (February 12, 1923 – July 15, 1977), also known as One Arm John, was an American blues harmonica player and singer, well known for playing at the Maxwell Street Market in Chicago in the 1960s. He toured Europe in the 1970s.Ha ...
for the album ''Original Chicago Blues''.
He later teamed up with
Earring George Mayweather
Earring George Mayweather (September 27, 1927 – February 12, 1995) was an American electric blues and Chicago blues harmonica player, songwriter and singer. He recorded only one solo album, but he played the harmonica on recordings by J. B. Hu ...
, and they jointly recorded several tracks, including "You'll Always Have a Home" and "Don't Knock at My Door". Several of these were released as singles, of which "Big Town Playboy" and "Bad Boy", issued by
Vee Jay Records
Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
The label was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a ...
, were local
hits in the 1950s, but Taylor's singles generally were not commercially successful.
In the 1970s, Taylor participated in the American Blues Legends '74 tour of Europe organised by
Big Bear Records, appearing on the album of the same name as well as solo long-player, ''Ready For Eddie''.
Later, in "semi-retirement", Taylor was the regular lead guitarist with Peter Dames and the Chicago River Blues Band, later known as Peter Dames and the Rhythm Flames.
Taylor played lead guitar on several songs (including the title track) on the album ''Be Careful How You Vote'' by
Sunnyland Slim
Albert Luandrew (September 5, 1906March 17, 1995), "Blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim was born Albert Luandrew in Vance, Mississippi, September 5, 1906 (most sources say 1907, but the Social Security Death Index and 1920 census data give t ...
, and played live with Sunnyland Slim on some tour dates in the 1980s.
Taylor's wife, Vera, was a singer and songwriter,
and was the niece of the bluesmen
Eddie "Guitar" Burns
Eddie "Guitar" Burns (February 8, 1928 – December 12, 2012) was an American Detroit blues guitarist, harmonica player, singer and songwriter. His career spanned seven decades. Among Detroit bluesmen, Burns was deemed to have been exceeded in ...
and
Jimmy Burns
Jimmy Burns (born February 27, 1943) is an American soul blues and electric blues guitarist, singing, singer and songwriter. Although he was born in the Mississippi Delta, Burns has spent nearly all his life in Chicago. His elder brother, Eddie ...
. Taylor's late son
Eddie Taylor Jr. was a blues guitarist in Chicago, his stepson Larry Taylor is a blues drummer and vocalist, and his daughter
Demetria is a blues vocalist in Chicago.
Taylor died on Christmas Day in 1985 in Chicago,
at the age of 62, and was
interred
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
in
Restvale Cemetery
Restvale Cemetery open 1927 is located at 11700 S. Laramie Ave. in Alsip, Illinois, United States, a suburb southwest of the city of Chicago. A number of Chicago blues musicians, educators, and notable people are buried here.
Restvale and Burr ...
in
Alsip, Illinois. He was posthumously inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...
in 1987.
Discography
Albums recorded as leader
Studio albums
Live album
Collaboration albums
Albums recorded as sideman
*1958: ''
I'm Jimmy Reed'' –
Jimmy Reed
Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...
(
Vee-Jay
Vee-Jay Records is an American record label founded in the 1950s, located in Chicago and specializing in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
The label was founded in Gary, Indiana in 1953 by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken, a ...
)
*1959: ''
I'm John Lee Hooker'' –
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues. Hooker often ...
(Vee-Jay)
*1967: ''
Soulin'
''Soulin' '' is an album by blues musician Jimmy Reed released by the BluesWay label in 1967.Both Si ...
'' – Jimmy Reed (
BluesWay)
*1968: ''
Big Boss Man'' – Jimmy Reed (BluesWay)
*1969: ''
Carey Bell's Blues Harp'' –
Carey Bell
Carey Bell Harrington (November 14, 1936 – May 6, 2007) was an American blues musician who played harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass guitar for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s bef ...
(
Delmark)
*1969: ''
Down in Virginia
''Down in Virginia'' is an album by blues musician Jimmy Reed released by the BluesWay label in 1969.
Reception
AllMusic reviewer Cub Koda stated: "Reed was in pretty sad shape by this time in his life and the monotonous approach to these song ...
'' – Jimmy Reed (BluesWay)
*1972: ''
Big Walter Horton with Carey Bell'' − Big Walter Horton and Carey Bel' (
Alligator
An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...
)
*1973: ''
Last Night'' – Carey Bell (BluesWay)
*1975: ''Street Talkin (
Muse
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
5087), compilation of Vee Jay recordings with seven tracks by
Elmore James
Elmore James ( Brooks; January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ...
tracks and seven by Taylor
*1981: ''Big Town Playboy'' (
Charly
''Charly'' (marketed and stylized as ''CHAЯLY'') is a 1968 American drama film directed and produced by Ralph Nelson and written by Stirling Silliphant. It is based on ''Flowers for Algernon'', a science-fiction short story (1958) and subseque ...
1015), compilation of Vee Jay recordings under Taylor's name, except "Good Hearted"
References
External links
*
Eddie Taylor: Biography Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Eddie
1923 births
1985 deaths
People from Benoit, Mississippi
American blues guitarists
American male guitarists
American blues singers
American street performers
African-American guitarists
Blues musicians from Mississippi
Vee-Jay Records artists
20th-century American guitarists
Guitarists from Mississippi
People from Leland, Mississippi
JSP Records artists
P-Vine Records artists
20th-century African-American male singers