# Event featured performances by Kurt Elling, Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and others: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/09/15/video/
- Published: 2017-09-15T19:32:23+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**A scholarship at Berklee College of Music was created in the name of longtime 
Boston concert producer Fred Taylor. On September 12, a benefit concert featuring
Kurt Elling, Danilo Perez, Terri Lyne Carrington, Catherine Russell, Kat Edmonson,
John Patitucci and Grace Kelly was held at the Berklee Performance Center. **Kelly,
along with her parents Bob Kelly and Irene Chang, organized the concert.  And it
was Kelly, in tandem with one of her mentors, trumpeter/vocalist Bo Winiker, who
initially proposed the scholarship to Berklee.  The concert was emceed by WBUR radio
host Robin Young.  Trumpeter Jason Palmer was the musical director for the performances.

Before working with Scullers until his recent dismissal from that venue, Fred Taylor
had managed two of the seminal jazz clubs in the Boston area – Paul’s Mall and the
Jazz Workshop – where a veritable who’s who of jazz (and rock) greats played from
1965 until 1978. Taylor also promoted the famous comeback appearance of Miles Davis
back.  A lifelong champion of emerging artists, Taylor was an early supporter and
advocate for artists such as Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza
Spalding and most recently, Grace Kelly.  Spalding was among the many notable artists
who contributed video tributes to Taylor.  Others included Christian McBride, Harry
Connick, Jr., Steve Tyrell, Bill Charlap, Ahmad Jamal and Sean Jones.

Among the speakers was Pat Metheny who shared his experiences in dealing with Fred
Taylor over the years. Metheny said that when he was first playing around Boston
both as a sideman with Gary Burton and as the leader of the _Bright Size Life-_era
trio with Jaco Pastorius and Bob Moses, Taylor was encouraging and gave the trio
its first real engagement with a week at the Jazz Workshop.  Metheny noted that 
he has been working with Taylor as a promoter ever since.

During his segment of the performance at the benefit concert at Berklee, Kurt Elling
said that Taylor’s greatest attribute was his faithfulness to the music.

In 2015, Taylor was the first recipient of the **George Wein Impresario award**,
presented by Berklee. According to the event program, the **Fred Taylor Endowed 
Scholarship Fund** at Berklee “is designed to nurture gifted and deserving students
who are in need of financial assistance and who are studying in the area of music
business/management or professional music.”

### _Related_