Fred Taylor

Fred Taylor is a drummer, composer, arranger, and producer. He started out at age 5 as a classical piano student in Spokane, Washington, and took up drums at age 10. As a young man, he played his first professional gigs in Spokane at around age 14. After early graduation from high school, he went on the road with a succession of bands and acts, interrupted by one year of college. He traveled around the US and western Canada playing country, rock, funk, and all the current '70s top 40 pop hits, with the occasional orchestral or musical theater job.

After settling down in the Seattle area, he started working extensively in the local music community, playing multiple genres, weddings, parties, theater shows, big bands, clubs, ballrooms, hotels, and military bases within a 200-mile radius of Seattle. He did many recording sessions; some were published 45s and LPs, others demos, and TV and radio jingles. He led his own bands in the jazz/fusion realm; among them Inquest and Sanctuary.

In the mid 2000’s, after attending New York’s Drummers Collective, Fred took up part-time residence in New Jersey, composing, recording, and performing in the New York City area for about five years. His albums as a leader include ‘Court of Circe’ (1982); ‘Processional’ (2006); ‘Circling’ (2008); ‘Fred Taylor Trio Live at Cecil’s Vol. 1’ (2009); and ‘Lifting The Light- Essex Improviser’s Collective’ (2012). He’s also currently on CDs by Gary Lee Rollins (Love View-2014) and the Steve Pidgeon Band (Then Came The Blues-2020). Fred has recently relocated his family and his recording studio to Rising Fawn, Georgia, just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee.