Intro

For years, the search for idiosyncratic scat legend ''Shooby'' Taylor led nowhere. He was reportedly from New York, but which borough? ''William Taylor'' is a very common name.

Rare leads were followed, sightings proved elusive, and his fans wondered whether Shooby was still alive. The chapter on Taylor in SONGS IN THE KEY OF Z opens with: ''If you know William 'Shooby' Taylor personally, please tell him he's in this book.'' That clarion call did not elicit a single additional clue.

But New Yorker RICK GOETZ, who had become enamored of Taylor's scat stylings from a widely circulated WFMU cassette, swore to me in late Spring 2002 that he would locate Shooby. He phoned countless metro denizens named ''William Taylor'' throughout the five boroughs. Then, on July 16, Rick sent me an email:

I spoke to William Taylor Jr. today. Shooby is alive, although he is in a hospital in NJ. Apparently he just suffered a slight heart attack. William Jr. said he would give my # to Shooby this Friday. He is 73 years old.

The Taylor offspring confirmed that his dad had pursued a quixotic career as a scat singer in New York City for decades, with no success. In 1992, Shooby moved to a senior complex in Newark (15 minutes from my home, and the city of my birth). Tragically, a 1994 stroke had silenced the scatman's musical prowess, and he no longer recorded or performed.

Goetz phoned Shooby, discovered that he was in a nursing home, not a hospital, and a date was arranged for a visit...