Taylor Ho Bynum (born 1975) is a musician, composer, educator and writer. His main instrument is the cornet, but he also plays numerous similar instruments, including flugelhorn and trumpet.
Early life Bynum was born in BaltimoreWilmoth, Charlie "Taylor Ho Bynum". AllMusic. Retrieved August 30, 2017. in 1975, and grew up in Boston."AMN Interviews: Taylor Ho Bynum" (November 19, 2013). Avant Music News. His parents were fans of music, and professional musicians were often in the family home. Bynum's sister is writer Sarah Shun-lien Bynum.Ng, Ivana (October 8, 2009) "Taylor Ho Bynum & Spidermonkey Strings: Madeleine Dreams". All About Jazz.
Bynum began playing the trumpet at the age of ten, and played classical music in youth orchestras when at high school. At the age of 15, funding for music was cut at his school, so he joined the jazz big band at a local university instead; there, he was mentored by bass trombonist and tubaist Bill Lowe.Bynum, Taylor Ho (February 1, 2012) "Guset Post: Taylor Ho Bynum on Bill Lowe". Destination: Out. Working in an ice cream shop meant that Bynum was able to organize weekly jazz concerts there. Around the early 1990s, Bynum first played with drummer Tomas Fujiwara.Fitzell, Sean (March 2012) "Tomas Fujiwara". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 7. Continuing his interest in music, Bynum attended Wesleyan University, where he studied with a major influence on his future – Anthony Braxton – as well as with Pheeroan akLaff, Jay Hoggard, and others. Bynum graduated from Wesleyan in 1998.
Later life and career In 1999, he played on two Braxton albums and a duo album with Eric Rosenthal. In addition to Lowe and Braxton, Bill Dixon was a formative influence on Bynum.Meyer, Bill (December 2016) "Taylor Ho Bynum – Enter the PlusTet". Down Beat. p. 76. His recording continued in 2001: on Trio Ex Nihilo with Curt Newton and Jeff Song, and with the Sound Visions Orchestra of Alan Silva. A year later, he recorded duets with Braxton and Rosenthal, as well as playing on the Fully Celebrated Orchestra's Marriage of Heaven and Earth, and creating a band with himself as cornetist, plus an electric guitar and string quartet, together named SpiderMonkey Strings. He also began a master's degree in music composition at Wesleyan. His sextet released its first album, The Middle Picture, in 2007, and Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths two years later. Bynum was also a member of Jason Kao Hwang's quartet named Edge.Iannapollo, Robert (November 2011) "Symphony of Souls – Jason Kao Hwang/Spontaneous River (Mulatta)". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 19. From 2007, Bynum has been part of The Convergence Quartet, with pianist Alexander Hawkins, bassist Dominic Lash, and drummer Harris Eisenstadt; they released their fourth album, Owl Jacket, in 2016.Allen, Clifford (August 2016) "Owl Jacket – The Convergence Quartet (NoBusiness)". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 26. In 2007, Bynum co-founded the record label Firehouse 12, with engineer Nick Lloyd.Farberman, Brad (March 2014) "Firehouse 12". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 12. The label's first release was Braxton's 9 Compositions (consisting of nine CDs and one DVD), and Bynum's The Middle Picture was next.
In September 2010, Bynum toured New England, traveling between gigs on a bicycle."Two-Wheeled Tour" (September 2010) Down Beat. p. 14. In the same year, he recorded the quartet Searching for Adam. This was followed by Apparent Distance in 2011 and Navigation by his 7-Tette two years later. The former was a four-part suite, funded by Chamber Music America's 2010 New Jazz Works.Miller, Matthew (September 2012) "Apparent Distance – Taylor Ho Bynum Sextet (Firehouse 12)". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 23. The Throes was also from 2011, and was co-led by Nate Wooley, with whom Bynum had played for two years.Iannapollo, Robert (July 2011) "The Throes – Nate Wooley/Taylor Ho Bynum (CIMP)". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 23. Bynum released Navigation around 2013; it consisted of four performances of a single piece, with two being released on LP and two on CD (all four were released for digital download, which was also available to purchasers of either physical release). Bynum expounded on his releasing four recordings of the same piece: "I want to ask listeners to consider the composition as a set of possibilities rather than a fixed document, to encourage them to enjoy the mutable nature of the music in multiple realizations rather than focusing on one particular performance."Gottschalk, Kurt (November 2013) "Navigation – Taylor Ho Bynum (Firehouse 12)". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 16. In 2014, he undertook another "Acoustic Bicycle Tour" from Vancouver, Canada down the West Coast to Tijuana, Mexico, captured in a short documentary film by Chris Jonas."Taylor Ho Bynum's Acoustic Bicycle Tour". Vimeo. Book of Three was a trio album in 2014, and Enter the PlusTet two years later was performed by a 15-piece band. A new quartet, Illegal Crowns, was recorded in 2014.Ng, Ivana (December 2016) "Eponymous – Illegal Crowns (Rogue Art)". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 17.
In the area of education, Bynum has led jazz ensembles at Northeastern University, and has been the director of the Coast Jazz Orchestra at Dartmouth College since July 2017."New Director Named for Barbary Coast Jazz Ensemble" (June 16, 2017). Dartmouth College. He has also written about music for The New Yorker magazine."Taylor Ho Bynum". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 30, 2017. He has also served as the executive director of Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Foundation[tricentricfoundation.org/bio-history "Board & Staff"]. Tri-Centric Foundation. Retrieved September 5, 2017. since 2010, producing and performing on most of Braxton's recent major projects, including his Trillium operas and his Sonic Genomes. A further activity has been organizing music events, including the Sound Genome project in Vancouver in 2010 and a festival at the Roulette club in New York City the following year.Woodard, Josef (March 2012) "Braxton's Allies". Down Beat. p. 36.
Composition and playing styles A reviewer of Next commented that Bynum "deploys a litany of buzzes, whistles, drones, pinched fanfares and garrulous brass muttering in acrobatic arcs that twist and somersault."Sharpe, John (October 2011) "Next – Taylor Ho Bynum/Joe Morris/Sara Schoenbeck (Porter)". The New York City Jazz Record. p. 14. The overlaps of composition and improvisation are explored by Bynum; a reviewer of Illegal Crowns and Enter the PlusTet observed that they "are equally imaginative and revolutionary in their own right, characterized by a dogged exploration of the ebb and flow between composition and spontaneity."
Awards Bynum was Down Beat magazine's Rising Star Trumpeter in its critics poll of 2017.Lutz, Phillip (August 2017) "Cherry: Organic Flow". Down Beat. p. 34.
Discography An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.
As leader/co-leader