Taylor McFerrin

Influenced by the legends of ’70s Soul, Golden Era hip-hop and freeform jazz electronic music, producer and composer Taylor McFerrin creates sounds with musical dexterity.

Playing all of the instruments on his productions, while also sampling and chopping up his live takes, he has found a sound that seamlessly bridges myriad musical worlds that draws the listener into a constantly shifting beautiful audio soundscape.

With the release of his 2008 EP Broken Vibes, the Brooklyn musician began a cycle of creating tracks, only to leave them unfinished, and himself dissatisfied and discontent. Rather than continue this draining process, McFerrin spent the past year combing through those tracks to find the ones he felt embodied the height of his creativity, and then he finished them.

This work became the base of his first full-length LP, Early Riser which released in June 2014 on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder record label. The record features guest appearances by Naipalm (Hiatus Kaiyote), Thundercat, Emily King, Robert Glasper, Bobby McFerrin, Cesar Mariano and Marcus Gilmore.

In addition to producing and performing, Taylor has served as the head instructor of the pioneering Beat Rockers program over the past 4 years, teaching beatboxing and musical self-expression to students who are blind and/or have multiple disabilities at the Lavelle School for the Blind in the Bronx. »