Biographical Information

Biographical information elicited during our conversations:

• William H. Taylor was born in Indiana Township (Allegheny County), PA, on September 19, 1929. His family brought him to New York when he was 18 months old. He grew up in Harlem, and considers himself a New Yorker.

• As a youngster, he had been embarrassed about stuttering, and consequently didn't finish high school.

• He married a woman from Harlem named Sadie (nickname: "Peaches"); they had a son, William H. Taylor, Jr., born when Shooby was 17. He and Sadie were divorced, he didn't say when. They remained friends, but she passed away in the 1980s.

• He entered the military in 1953, and was training in Augusta GA for assignment to Korea when the war ended. He was discharged in 1955.

• He worked for the post office in New York, at several locations, and at several positions, but never as a letter carrier.

• Growing up and on into adulthood, he listened to and admired Ellington, Miles, Ella, Sarah, and countless other jazz icons. (Curiously, I don't think he mentioned any saxophonists.) He heard sounds in his head and felt destined to express them musically. He went to music school, practiced saxophone, and tried to master the instrument, but to little avail. Then, an epiphany: he was foolish to try and convey his musical soul through an instrument, because, he realized, "I am the horn!" He began developing his idiosyncratic scat style -- not to imitate a horn, but because voice was his instrumental "gift." He did admit to playing "air saxophone" when he performed and recorded.

• His idol was jive scatmaster Babs Gonzales, whom Shooby tried to emulate. He met Babs once, and claims to have gotten permission to use the name "Shooby" from Dizzy Gillespie. He asked Diz personally, and Diz approved of the moniker.

• He estimated paying about $30/hr studio time at Angel, and elsewhere. He mentioned a facility on 23rd Street, but couldn't recall the name.

• The fellow who played Farfisa organ on "Stout-Hearted Men" (heard on Songs in the Key of Z, Vol. 1) and a few of his other recordings was a session jazz keyboardist, Freddie Drew, of the Bronx, who has since passed away.

• Shooby'd been a boozer. BIG drinker, he stressed. Cleaned up through AA, and Jesus.

• I asked him how he'd been "with the ladies." Admitted he'd been a "fornicator" and a "whoremonger," but no longer. Since he didn't say when his marriage ended, we don't know if his carousing coincided with his marriage, led to his divorce, or happened after his divorce.

• He tried to perform at the Apollo, but was booed offstage. He attended countless jam sessions at NYC clubs, but was rarely given the chance to wail. He was not taken seriously, was scorned, and made to feel unwelcome. But he would not quit. He financed his recordings to prove his artistry. In addition to vocalizing over the Ink Spots, the Harmonicats, and country gospel singer Christy Lane, he dubbed his "Shoobology" over Johnny Cash, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Shirley Caesar, Errol Garner, and Elvis -- among others. Mozart, for God's sake! Shooby Taylor, scatted over Mozart's Rondeau Allegretto.

• He last publicly performed in a bar on West 23rd Street in 1993. He can't recall the name.

• Around 1995, The David Letterman Show, who had obtained a cassette of Taylor's recordings from the WFMU catalogue, tracked down the scatman and invited him to appear on the show. However, Shooby was recovering from his stroke and told the show's coordinators that he could no longer sing. He politely declined the invitation.

• He radiated a sense of vindication that now, in his twilight years, two "youngsters" showed up on his doorstep to tell him that people all over the world were listening to his music, and that we were interested in preserving his artistic legacy.

• He claims to have the original open-reel tapes of his sessions, tucked away in a closet. He has no idea what condition they're in. All the more reason to preserve those cassettes.

• He goes to church regularly.

• He insists he will never perform again. "The gift" is gone.


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