John Taylor: Insight (Sketch)

In October 2003 eJazzNews published John Kelman’s review of Insight, a solo piano album that the British pianist John Taylor had released on the Sketch label in France the month before. Kelman argued it deserved to be treated as a classic. Taylor kept recording and teaching for another twelve years; he died on July 17, 2015, aged 72, after suffering a heart attack on stage at a festival in Segré, France.

What the 2003 review said

Kelman placed Insight after two trio records, Overnight (2002) and Rosslyn (2003), and wrote that it “would be widely heralded as a landmark recording if released by a more well-known artist.” He heard the impressionism, swing and classical references of Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea absorbed into a voice of Taylor’s own, with dense harmony that still sounded light.

He walked through the program: pieces Taylor had played with Peter Erskine’s trio in the 1990s (“Pure and Simple,” “Clapperclowe,” “Evans Above”), “Ambleside” from his duo work with saxophonist John Surman, “Field Day” from Rosslyn, new compositions, Kenny Wheeler’s “Everybody’s Song But My Own” and Steve Swallow’s “Vaguely Asian,” on which Taylor plucked and strummed the strings and tapped the piano for percussion. He noted the pulse of “Glebe Ascending,” the poetry of “Between Moons” and “Namasti,” and the fully free closing track, “Handmade.” Kelman ended by hoping the album would win Taylor a wider audience.

One detail needs correcting. Kelman dated the Surman duo recording to 1995, but their duo album Ambleside Days came out on the Ah Um label in 1992, and “Clapperclowe” also appears on it. For the record, Overnight was a trio with trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and bassist Riccardo del Fra, not a piano trio.

About the album

Sketch issued Insight (SKE 333035) in France on September 3, 2003, with eleven tracks. In The Guardian on September 5, 2003, John Fordham also praised it, calling it “a beautiful solo statement by a very modest star.” When Taylor died, Fordham’s obituary described Insight as widely regarded as one of his finest recordings.

Who John Taylor was

Taylor was born in Manchester on September 25, 1942, and taught himself the piano. He moved to London in 1964 and by the end of the decade was working with saxophonists John Surman and Alan Skidmore. In the 1970s he accompanied Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, played as a house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s, and in 1977 co-founded the trio Azimuth with singer Norma Winstone and Kenny Wheeler, recording for ECM. He worked with Jan Garbarek, Miroslav Vitous and Gil Evans’s British orchestra, recorded several albums with Peter Erskine’s trio in the 1990s, and became professor of jazz piano at the Cologne college of music in 1993. A 60th-birthday tour in 2002 launched his trio with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Baron, and his Green Man Suite won a BBC Jazz Award that year. For the players he was most often compared with, see our overview of jazz pianists.

What happened next

After Insight, Taylor recorded for CAM Jazz with bassist Palle Danielsson and drummer Martin France (Angel of the Presence, Whirlpool) and made duo albums with Wheeler (Where Do We Go from Here?) and bassist Charlie Haden (Nightfall). He taught jazz at the University of York from 2005, and for his 70th birthday in 2012 wrote a BBC Radio 3 commission that included a suite inspired by Kurt Vonnegut. He spoke at Wheeler’s memorial service in October 2014. Nine months later he collapsed while performing at the Saveurs Jazz Festival in Segré and died in hospital.

Where to start listening

• Insight (Sketch, 2003): the solo album reviewed here.
• Rosslyn (ECM, 2003): the trio with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron that preceded it.
• Azimuth (ECM, 1977): the first album by his trio with Norma Winstone and Kenny Wheeler.

Sources

• John Fordham, “John Taylor obituary,” The Guardian, July 19, 2015.
• John Fordham, “John Taylor, Insight,” The Guardian, September 5, 2003.
• MusicBrainz, “John Taylor: Insight (Sketch, SKE 333035),” accessed October 2026.
• MusicBrainz, “John Taylor and John Surman: Ambleside Days (Ah Um, 1992),” accessed October 2026.
• BBC Music, “John Taylor, Rosslyn,” review, accessed October 2026.
• Wikipedia, “John Taylor (jazz),” accessed October 2026.

This page is based on an article from the original eJazzNews archive (2001 to 2018), with background and sources added in 2026. The original text is not republished here. You can read the original as it appeared on eJazzNews via the Internet Archive.
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