MARK TAYLOR FILMMUSIK - composer/sound designer

Mark Taylor is one of a handful of talented performers carrying on the improvisational tradition pioneered by the great (french) hornist, Julius Watkins, and is currently the only artist on the international jazz scene bringing new life to the long forgotten mellophone as a solo jazz instrument.

Taylor's sound has been described as "rapturous" and "golden" (Coda Magazine); "as fluid and limpid as (the) flute, and as gnarly as (the) alto." (JazzTimes). His innovative style has won him recognition by such legendary artists as Max Roach, who said, "Mark Taylor is a virtuoso instrumentalist...there is no one dealing with the french horn or the music the way he is."

A native of Chattanooga, TN, Mark's broad musical background includes performing, composing and arranging. Mark has performed and recorded with an array of modern giants including: Max Roach, McCoy Tyner, Abdullah Ibrahim, Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie, and Basie bandleader Grover Mitchell.

As a featured soloist with Henry Threadgill's Very Very Circus, Mark has toured throughout the United States, Europe and in Asia. As a member of George Schuller's post-modern big band, Orange Then Blue, he participated in a State Department tour of Turkey, Cyprus and Syria., and as leader of his own groups he has performed at the Tampere Jazz Happening in Tampere, Finland, Ljubljana and Maribor, Slovenia, and at a number of clubs in Germany, Austria, Canada and New York City, including Birdland, the Zinc Bar and the Knitting Factory.

As a composer, Mark has written for Max Roach, the Ebony Brass Quintet, pianist Larry Willis and was a member/arranger for Max Roach’s So What Brass Quintet. He has also been commissioned to compose for theatre, dance, CD-ROM, placed two songs in the Dollface Productions independent feature film "The Girl", scored Camille Billops' documentary, "A String of Pearls" and, most recently, completed the score for “9/11: The Forgotten Underdogs”, a new documentary about the difficulties faced by the deaf and hard of hearing during emergency situations, and done music, sound design and audio post for “Zero Down O.A.C.”, a dark comedy by Canadian filmmaker Aaron Moseson about the adventures of two used car salesmen in rural Alberta.