Although Taylor has had a busy enough career as a pianist, his real work in jazz has been as an educator and propagandist. He grew up in Washington DC and studied piano from an early age. He was in New York by 1944, where he subbed for Bud Powell in Dizzy Gillespie's band for a time, and he played for numerous leaders in various styles before eventually becoming the house pianist at the Birdland club in 1951. On record he worked mainly as his own leader, helming trios and larger groups for a number of labels, including Prestige, Roost, ABC-Paramount and Savoy. While little of his playing really makes an individual mark – his facility in the right hand mixes the bop stylists with the even more florid approach of Art Tatum – Taylor has always been good at reaching an audience, and in some ways it's surprising that his records aren't more widely known than they are. His real forte, though, has been away from mere playing. He began writing, lecturing and holding jazz workshops in the middle 50s, became a disc jockey on New York radio, and also became a regular on television, never missing the opportunity to beat the drum for jazz. He helped establish the Jazzmobile initiative in the city in 1965 and has remained devoted to it since. While he founded his own label, Taylor Made, in the 80s, his work on radio and as a speaker has continued to take up more of his time than actual playing. Honoured in his senior years as a great and loyal friend to the music and its performers, Billy also contributed one of the most significant political songs of the so-called civil rights era, I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, which for many years was the theme tune to a popular film-review programme on British television, but which is better known in the US as an anthem of its time.

Biography from Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia (2005).

If you'd like more information, check out The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002) or The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (2007), both of which are still in print.