Musical Biography

Taylor Ho Bynum, performer on cornet and various brass instruments, composer and bandleader, was born in 1975 and raised in Boston, where he presently resides. Bynum has established a reputation as a unique musical voice willing to take chances in a wide variety of musical contexts. Projects range from ensembles in the jazz tradition, to work with DJs, contemporary classical composers, and world music ensembles, to composing for film and theater, to collaborations with dancers and visual artists.

In addition to leading his own groups (such as his 4tet and the seven piece SpiderMonkey Stories), Bynum regularly performs and records with a host of leading figures in creative music. He has worked with saxophonist, composer and MacArthur ìgenius grantî recipient Anthony Braxton in projects ranging from duo to orchestra. He is a member of The Fully Celebrated Orchestra (with saxophonist and composer Jim Hobbs, bassist Timo Shanko, and drummer Django Carranza), declared Boston's best jazz group by The Boston Globe, the Boston Music Awards, and the Boston Phoenix Music Poll. He is a founding member of the collective ensembles Paradigm Shift (with fellow brass multi-instrumentalists Bill Lowe, Joseph Daley, and Stephen Haynes, and percussionists Warren Smith and Syd Smart), Trio Ex Nihilo (with cellist Jeff Song and drummer Curt Newton), and a duo with percussionist Eric Rosenthal. He also performs with the Ghanaian master drummer Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng, the "free klezmer" ensemble Naftule's Dream, and the avant-salsa group Zemog el Gallo Bueno; and with big bands The Boston Jazz Repertory Orchestra (led by Carl Atkins and Bill Lowe) and The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (led by Mark Harvey).

Other performance and recording credits include work with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Fred Ho, Alan Silva, J.D. Parran, Elliot Sharp, Jay Hoggard, The Sound and Vision Orchestra, Alvin Batiste, The John Coltrane Memorial Ensemble, Pheeroan akLaff, Joe Fonda, Charlie Kohlhase, Nate McBride, Guillermo E. Brown, poet Patricia Smith, artist Nancy Ostrovsky, and many others. Bynum is also deeply involved with the Boston arts community as an educator and producer. He has taught all ages, from kindergarten through college, including directing the Northeastern University Jazz Ensembles, and has produced several major festivals, including the Autumn Uprising, Boston's annual festival of new and improvised music, and Artstuff, a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary arts and education program at Northeastern.

Quotes

"Taylor Ho Bynum is a marvelous cornetist with an outwardly directed post-bop sensibility" allaboutjazz.com

"Emerging as a creative force" The Boston Globe

"Cutting edge trumpet phenom" The Boston Phoenix

"His music embraces all styles of jazz while his trumpet work evokes the sound of Lester Bowie and Lee Morgan, plus other modern players...for any and all lovers of modern creative music" The Hartford Courant

"Bynum's performance was funny, poignant, spicy, monstrous and beautiful all at once" The Disembodied Ear