Items from Otis Taylor’s career now housed at CU
BOULDER » M aterials f rom Otis Taylor’s decades- long career as an internationally recognized Boulderbased blues banjo artist are now part of an a rchived collection at the University of Colorado.
Taylor, who has lived in Boulder since 1967, has released 15 albums and been at the forefront of Black banjo music. Taylor won many awards throughout his career for his music, which was often about race, injustice and the hardships Black people face.
Taylor was inducted into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
“He’s a very wonderful addition on many levels. First of all, Otis is a great artist that is well renowned but whose work has not received e nough r ecognition,” Austin Okigbo, interim director of the American Music Research Center at CU, said.
“I t hink housing his work at the AMRC i s the best w ay t o give him the v isibility, the recognition and the honor that he deserves, as somebody who has made m ajor c ontributions to
American music and culture.”
Materials from Taylor’s career are now part of CU’S American Music Research Center archival collections housed in the University Libraries’ Rare and Distinctive Collections. The American Music Research Center supports the research, performance and preservation of all music of the Americas with a particular emphasis on music diversity from the United S tates. T he c enter holds a rare collection of scores, papers, recordings and other material a rtifacts t hat document the history of American music that now includes Taylor’s collection.
Megan Friedel, h ead of c ollections management and stewardship for Rare and Distinctive Collections, estimates there are about 100 boxes of material covering his entire c areer. T hose boxes include recordings of his work, handwritten lyrics f or original songs, concert posters and programs, concert T- shirts, photographs, news articles and documentation of awards he won. The plan is to finish organizing the materials by the end of the summer so they’ll be available for use in the fall.
“You don’t have to be affiliated with C U to u se t he c ollection. You don’t have to be a scholar,” Friedel said. “Anyone can make an appointment in the Rare and
Distinctive Collections reading room beginning in the fall to see the collection.
There will b e a guide to t he collection online so they can select the boxes and folders they want to look at.”
Taylor s aid he’s g lad people will be able to study his materials and learn about the real history of the blues, Colorado and American music. He said the archive is the right place for him and his music, and will create a lasting legacy.
“It’s a big honor being recognized,” Taylor said, adding, “I’m very h onored. I think it’s t he right place for me and solves the problem of what happens to me when I’m gone.”
Friedel said she hopes the collection will be used in classes so students can learn from it, especially within the College of Music.
“It’s one of several collections that we’ve received over the past five or six years that really starts to s olidify Colorado’s p lace i n the national music scene,” Friedel said.
Anyone with questions about the collection c an email r ad@ colorado. edu.
“Otis is somebody who is well rooted in the state of Colorado, and therefore he’s a son of the state whose contribution needs to be celebrated,” Okigbo said.