Sam Taylor, a former Tucson blues guitarist and singer-songwriter who performed with Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and the Drifters, died at his Islandia, N.Y., home on Monday. The cause was complications from heart disease. He was 74.
Taylor spent a decade in Tucson and was a major player in the local blues scene. He moved to the East Coast in 1996 to be closer to his family.
He was born in Alabama but grew up in Brooklyn, where he started his professional life as a boxer. He turned to music after 13 years in the ring.
Taylor spent six years in the Air Force, and after some time making music in New York, he made his way to Southern California, where he set up shop at the Taurus Tavern, a popular hangout in Venice.
Dave "Kidd Squidd" Squires, a local disc jockey who lived in Venice at the time, remembers the first time he saw Taylor perform.
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"There was this short, black gentleman with a captain's hat on his head, his eyes closed and sweat pouring off of his face, playing some great blues," he said.
The pair became fast friends. When Squires moved to Tucson in the early '80s, he persuaded Taylor to follow.
"He had some drug problems and needed a new backdrop," Squires said. "He came out to visit for a weekend, met a bunch of musicians and ended up sitting in on a couple of jam sessions. Within a couple of months, he moved out here."
Taylor's move to the Old Pueblo eventually prompted guitarist Danny Krieger, another Californian and half of the duo Grams and Krieger, to relocate here, too.
Krieger, a friend of Taylor's for more than three decades, remembered performing with him as part of A Band Named Sam at the Taurus Tavern.
"He was a great, weird guitar player," said Krieger, 57. Tom Waits, John Hiatt and Coco Montoya would regularly sit in on their gigs, Krieger said.
"I learned so much about rhythm guitar from (Sam). He was a great soloist, too. You'd hear three notes, and you'd know it was Sam."
From his distinct vocal style to his superb songwriting abilities, Taylor was an instant hit in Tucson.
"Sam was dripping with soul," said Marty Kool, host of the KXCI (91.3-FM) show "Marty Kool's Blues Review."
"When he sang, he put everything he had into it. You could hear it in his songs. Not many people could sing like Sam Taylor, with that kind of feeling."
Taylor's band lineups in Tucson are a who's who of local talent. Guitarist Michael P. Nordberg joined Taylor's group in 1992. He would continue to play with Taylor, even after the bluesman moved to New York.
"He could pull the audience in just immediately," Nordberg said.
The band played five nights a week in Tucson at venues ranging from Jaime's on North Fourth Avenue to The Chicago Bar.
"He was an amazing bandleader," Nordberg added. "Anybody who played with him or watched him was transformed into what he needed them to be. I was brand-new to the bass at the time, and he made me sound like a really great R&B bass player."
Taylor was full of stories, Nordberg said. He would talk about his days as a boxer or as a performer with Redding. Sometimes artists from his past — members of Taylor's old "Peppermint Twist" band, Joey Dee and the Starliters or the Rascals — would come to town to perform with the band.
"You couldn't always understand every word Sam said because he was so animated," Nordberg said. "He was really exciting to listen to and always had a tale to tell."
Electric violinist Heather "Lil' Mama" Hardy also joined Taylor's band in 1992 and continued to play with the musician until Taylor stopped touring because of health concerns.
Hardy considered Taylor a close friend and said he gave everything on stage, whether there was one person in the audience or 1,000.
"The big thing with Sam was his endless promotion of the blues," Hardy said, "that the blues takes your blues away. That was his creed. That this was church, and you should come to church to feel better."
Taylor was inducted into the Arizona Blues Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006.
Kool said he would always invite Taylor onto his radio show whenever he came back to town, and Taylor entrusted Kool to sell his CDs at Hear's Music, a now-defunct niche-music store.
"Every time I saw him, he gave me a big hug," Kool said. "He was part of the fabric of Tucson. I'm going to miss him."
According to an article in Newsday, Taylor is survived by three daughters — Sandra Taylor, Daionae Sparks and Donna Brown — and a son, Kevin Taylor; 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
tribute show
Heather Hardy will host a Sam Taylor memorial concert at the Boondocks Lounge, 3306 N. First Ave., at 9 p.m. Saturday. Admission is $5.
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