Paul Taylor - Pleasure Seeker (1997)

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Paul Taylor - Pleasure Seeker (1997)

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From his swaying and suggestive onstage body movement to conceptualizing the electro-psychedelic cover art for his latest album Pleasure Seeker (Countdown/Unity), saxman Paul Taylor seems determined to captivate us visually. For his breakthrough hit On the Horn, Taylor gathered some of his existing tunes and sought the production direction of Kazu Matsui; on Pleasure Seeker, Taylor chose a more collaborative approach. For the most part, he started composing the tunes from scratch with the new production team of Dino Esposito (an old college chum of Taylor's) and Scot Rammer. While Taylor's strong sense of melody and lyrical approach to his instrument has been in place since the first project, his new producers give him a unique, atmospheric sonic playground unlike any other heard on smooth jazz radio'part industrial percussion (as on the echoing simulated metal pipe taps on the opener, "Groove Zone"), part electronic new age hypnotism (the dreamy shuffling on the moody "Looking for Eve" recall David Lanz & Paul Speer's classics), and, more to the modern point, modern hip hop meets a dash of stylish 70's soul (including a Fender Rhodes sound on lively funk-based "Thrive"). Taylor also wraps his loose, fluid soprano sound (which ring of the Grover Washington influence) around a wide variety of bass dynamics; the mid-tempo ballad "Raw Sugar" features jungle soundscaping and basslines that croak like a happy frog, while the bass rhythms on "Twilight Ride" are subdued and barely audible, leading to another round of gentle hypnosis.

~ Jonathan Widran, All Music Guide

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Paul Taylor - Pleasure Seeker (1997)

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Paul Taylor:

Born: 1972, Denver, CO
Active: 2000s
Genres: Jazz
Instrument: Sax (Soprano), Sax (Alto), Keyboards
Representative Albums: "Greatest Hits", "Legends, Vol. 2: Jazz"
Representative Songs: "Avenue", "Pleasure Seeker", "Exotica"

Paul Taylor grew up in Denver, where he took up the saxophone at the age of seven. He played in school bands, and in high school joined a Top 40 band called Mixed Company. Jazz keyboardist Keiko Matsui and her husband, producer Kazu Matsui, discovered him playing at the Catalina Island Jazz Festival and hired him to play in their band. He spent two years with them, and then Kazu Matsui produced his 1995 debut album, On the Horn, which reached the jazz charts and spawned a radio hit in "Til We Meet Again." Pleasure Seeker, his second album, followed in 1997 and was equally successful. Taylor released his third album, Undercover, on Peak/N-Coded Music in February 2000. Also in 2000, he toured as a special guest artist with the Rippingtons. Subsequent albums Hypnotic (2001), Steppin' Out (2003), Nightlife (2005), and Ladies' Choice (2007), all issued by Peak Records, figured high in the contemporary jazz charts, with Ladies' Choice going all the way to number one. Peak released Taylor's eighth album, Burnin', in 2009.

~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

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Paul Taylor - Pleasure Seeker (1997)

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Paul Taylor - Pleasure Seeker (1997)

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