Taylor is a teacher of jazz and intentionally or unintentionally, he hovers over the art form like a protective parent, ensuring that people get it right.

“Historically and chronologically, jazz originated from the blues idiom,” Taylor said. “But that’s not to say that it stayed there. One of the problems that we have in this commercial industry is that jazz is relegated in many ways as a museum piece or as a music that ‘was.’ In fact, it is the exact opposite. This is a new music. It is not an old music. It is a new music. And it is a derivative of gospel and blues, which was the musical manner in which music was accepted in slave days. I might not be able to sing in my Yoruba language, but I can sing spirituals. And I learned those spirituals phonetically, not because I could read, but because I could hear and repeat these words, some of which I didn’t even know. But I used the nuances and the themes of those gospel phrases to send messages to my people on the other side of the plantation sometimes. And so this is the original platform from jazz music. It is still a communicative music. It is not a music that lives and breathes on the page. It is not a music necessarily that was successfully acquired through study. This is a music that first and foremost must be felt. And here we have the difference between the academic approach to music and the cultural and spiritual approach to it. That’s what I am trying to be about.”

Jazz education has its place. Taylor wishes he could sight read notes as well as those who have attended a conservatory. But jazz must be felt and that can only be done by performing it hopefully with mentors who will show you the musical ropes.

“I believe there are rhythms and sounds that can reach into the human psyche and the human spirit that we really need to key into,” Taylor said. “I have a friend in Detroit who is experimenting with the frequency of 432 rather than 440. What we would normally consider A at 440 is just a little bit lower in frequency — what we call flatter — that he contends is the healing frequency. And academic will argue with you about that before he would be compelled to try it. We can get so intelligent about art that we keep ourselves from trying new things. And that is the exact opposite of what art is supposed to encourage.”

Jazz is about collaboration, a coming together to make a unique sound that is heard and then never heard again in the exact same form. Taylor feels that Madison’s jazz scene needs to be collaborative too and the more venues jazz is offered means that the art form is flourishing and staying alive.

“Last night, I was at the Chico Freeman concert at the North Street Cabaret,” Taylor said. “And I guess because I own this place, there were some people who acted weirdly surprised that I was even there. What they didn’t know was that Chico Freeman is someone whom I grew up with. We played together in AACM big bands. His father is Don Freemen who is an iconic saxophonist. The point is Al whom I have also known for over 40 years because he used to own a club in Chicago that we all played in who now owns the North Street Cabaret came to me and submitted, ‘I really need a piano.’ You can’t have a jazz club without a real piano. What would I look like if I knew where this cat could get a piano and tried to keep that from him? That would have me coming off as a competitor in what is admittedly a small market, but at the same time, for my own sake, so I narrow the opportunities for this music to be out there by not turning him on to the guy who has a piano? I said, ‘I’m going to try to help you out. I’m going to turn you on to an ask’ because it makes the whole scene better. You have to do whatever you can while you are still alive to make whatever you are the best place it can be for as many people as possible. And whatever it is that you do, that’s what you have to do. And if you are not doing that, then you’re not taking advantage of the precious time.”

For the past 30 years, Taylor has struggled to make jazz a part of everyday Madison life. On some levels, he has been waiting for Madison to become a world-class city.

“Café CODA has acquired some world class significance through the benefit of social media as well as the cats we have brought here,” Taylor said. “People are calling me from Austria and places like that complimenting us on our work and petitioning us for contracts. So you know you are doing something right when things fall in line in spite of getting permission. For 30 years, you have known me. I’ve lived in this town and frankly, there have been times when how long it was going to take Madison, Wisconsin to grow up culturally, overcome your ignorance and fear of what you don’t understand and embrace what is in front of you. If you are going to call yourself a world-class community, how can you be a world-class community if you don’t present and celebrate world-class art? And if you don’t have a venue for that, then it isn’t possible. If you only depend on a couple of institutional venues, then you are running into the problem of permission. I think there is enough room for everyone.”

Next Issue: Defining the art form