Boston jazz club owner Fred Taylor (1929-2019) grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and studied piano under Madame Margaret Chaloff. Following his graduation from Boston University in 1951, Taylor initially worked as a mattress salesman. He transitioned into music promotion in the mid-1950s, starting H.T. Productions and booking jazz and folks acts around Boston. By 1965, Taylor co-owned the two major jazz clubs in Boston: Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop. Following the venues’ closures in 1978, Taylor ran the Harvard Square Theater until 1986. Taylor was the Entertainment Director of Scullers Jazz Club from 1990 to 2016 and became the artistic director of the Jazz and Heritage Series at the Cabot Theatre in 2017 at age eighty-eight. Taylor was also on the Board of Directors for Jazz Boston, ​and between 2001 and 2007 was artistic director for the Tanglewood Jazz Festival. He earned awards from the Jazz Journalists Association and the inaugural George Wein Impresario Award from Berklee College of Music in 2015.