"25 Trumpets for the Future" - Downbeat Magazine, June 2007

Taylor Haskins has played in many of the large ensembles that matter, including the Dave Holland Big Band, Guillermo Klein's Los Guachos and the Maria Schneider Orchestra. "Those are three of my main influences composition-wise," he said. "In these groups, playing in unison with other musicians is one of the purest things you can do with a wind instrument." Haskins, 35, has also toured extensively with the explosive road band of Richard Bona. Originally from New Hampshire, where he grew up playing classical music, Haskins came to New YOrk to study with Lew Soloff at the Manhattan School of Music. He's gone on to forge alliance with such promising fellow bandleaders as Andrew Rathbun and Pablo Ablanedo. His two albums, Wake Up Call (2002) and Metaview (2006) reveal a probing, adroit lyricism and a gift for complex and imaginative composition. - David R. Adler

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