A huge loss for Canada’s jazz community today. I heard Ross twice, once performing on piano and once on saxophone - he had the deepest connection with the moment; spontaneous, creative, and sensitive. “Vancouver-based saxophonist and pianist Ross Taggart has died. The powerful and well-liked player, Victoria-born and -bred, had been hospitalized in the fall for renal cancer, and a sold-out benefit concert was staged for him in late November. Taggart was in his mid-40s but had been active active at a high level even as a teenager on Canada’s West Coast. A consummate mainstream jazz player who was equally formidable on both of his instruments, Taggart accompanied in his day such legendary players as Benny Golson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, and Fraser MacPherson. He taught at Capilano University and was married to pianist Sharon Minemoto. Taggart told the Vancouver Province in 1991 that he became hooked on jazz at 14, and that hearing an Oscar Peterson album prompted him to trade all his rock records for jazz albums. When the story was written, Taggart was 23 and about to leave Vancouver for eight months to study in Toronto and New York with support from the Canada Council for the Arts. Among his teachers were George Coleman, Clifford Jordan, J.R. Monterose, Don Thompson and Bernie Senesky.”
