Blues singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist Otis Taylor is capable of exploring any musical mood at any given time, and it’s an important reason why he is considered one of the most talented artists to emerge in recent years. “Sometimes pigeonholed as a bluesman, Otis Taylor can’t be defined by any single category,” proclaims Spin magazine. According to Ann Powers at the Los Angeles Times, “Gentle upon first listen, blending the austerity of Delta blues with the expansiveness of free jazz, Taylor's ancient-sounding, avant-garde ‘trance blues’ has a dangerous pull.” The Oxford American raves, “It might not be too early to call Otis Taylor a major talent.”
Otis Taylor’s Contraband confirms all this and more. Set for release February 13, 2012, on Telarc, a division of Concord Music Group, the subject matter on Taylor’s new album is familiar terrain as he sings of love, social injustices, personal demons and war. The recording takes its title from an article that appeared in the May/June 2011 issue of Preservation Magazine about runaway slaves who during the American Civil War escaped to the Union lines at Fort Monroe, VA. Known as “contraband,” they lived in camps where conditions were often worse than life on the plantation.
On Otis Taylor’s Contraband, the iconoclastic bluesman is reunited with several longtime collaborators including Ron Miles on cornet, pedal steel guitarist Chuck Campbell, djembe player Fara Tolno, fiddler Anne Harris and the Sheryl Renee Choir. Bass is handled by Taylor’s daughter Cassie and Todd Edmunds. Rounding out the band are Jon Paul Johnson on guitar, Brian Juan on organ and Larry Thompson on drums.
Otis Mark Taylor was born in Chicago in 1948. After his uncle was shot to death, his family moved to Denver, where an adolescent’s interest in blues and folk was cultivated. Both his parents were big music fans: “I was raised around jazz musicians,” Taylor relates. “My dad worked for the railroad and knew a lot of jazz people. He was a socialist and real bebopper.” His mother, Sarah, a tough-as-nails woman with liberal leanings, had a penchant for Etta James and Pat Boone. Young Otis spent time at the Denver Folklore Center, where he bought his first instrument, a banjo. He used to play it while riding his unicycle to high school. The Folklore Center was also the place where he first heard Mississippi John Hurt and country blues. He learned to play guitar and harmonica, and by his mid-teens, he formed his first groups — the Butterscotch Fire Department Blues Band and later the Otis Taylor Blues Band. He ventured overseas to London, where he performed for a brief time until he returned to the U.S. in the late ’60s. His next project became the T&O Short Line with legendary Deep Purple singer/guitarist Tommy Bolin. Stints with the 4-Nikators and Zephyr followed before he decided to take a hiatus from the music business in 1977. During this time he established a successful career as an antiques dealer and also began coaching an amateur bicycling team. The team included two African-American riders, and was ranked fourth in the nation. But with much prodding from Kenny Passarelli and associates, the reluctant Taylor returned to music in 1995.