Rob "Zi" Taylor
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Rob "Zi" Taylor

Band Jazz Reggae

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Discography

Check website discography for details on Albums released, Album covers and worked entailed. www.zionsax.com

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Bio

 

Rob Zi' Taylor is no newcomer to the world of music.

Although it was only a brief hobby for his mother and father, playing the piano and guitar, it was enough to plant the musical seed within their second son.

Growing up for the first 11 years of his life in rural Lancashire, England, on a sheep farm, Zi' began piano lessons at the age of 8, but from as early as he can remember always had an infatuation with the sax.

In 1992, Zi' joined local reggae band Amate and enjoyed over 3 years of performing regularly at hotels and concerts, opening for Jamaican artists such as Maxi Priest, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Beres Hammond and Steel Pulse, just to name a few. He also performed on Amate's second album and featured in their music videos.

Always striving for higher heights with his musical career, Zi' embarked on another venture in 1996. A recording studio and dancehall reggae group named Kronic Heights.

Over the next 4 years, Zi' and his partner composed, recorded and released several albums, fusing reggae, hip hop, dancehall and jungle, creating an overwhelming impact on the music scene locally and throughout other parts of the Caribbean, sharing the same stage with international stars like Shaggy and the Fugees and performing for Nelson Mandela.

With the recording studio becoming more commercial and Zi' spending more time producing and programming for other artists hiring the studio, his own sax playing was taking a back seat. Recognizing this, he decided to focus simply more on himself.

Through his reputation, Zi gained many admirers not only fans but also people in the music biz. After some negotiation, Zi' was flown up to Miami to rehearse with Ky-mani Marley, son of the legendary Bob Marley for an upcoming US tour. Soon after landing in Miami, Zi' went on the US Reggae Blitz 2000 Summer Tour with Ky-mani alongside Maxi Priest, Toots and the Maytals and Andrew Tosh.

He has also found time to perform at some prestigious events, and has been recognized and personally requested, at the Dutch Queen's Birthday celebration two years in a row, the Queen of England's Golden Jubilee celebration and other Government functions, held at the St. Lucia's Government House.

For the last couple of years, Zi' has been home in St. Lucia writing music for his debut album, a solid set of grooves with both vocal and sax arrangements, encompassing his influences of reggae, hip-hop, jazz, funk, and creole fusion.

In 2004 Zi released his long awaited original album “Rise Up” a 12 track cd encompassing his many moods and styles.

He had the good fortune of recording the album in Miami with the musicians he worked with and others he met whilst touring with Ky-mani and to top it all off was graced with the expertise of multi-platinum, grammy award winning engineer, Bob Rosa, whose track record includes artists such as Prince, Whitney Housten, Janet Jackson, Nsync and countless others. Although the intention was for Bob to only mix a couple of the tracks after he heard the others and realized the potential of Zi as a solo artist he offered to mix the entire album as in his own words “it’s a refreshing change to work on music with so much flavour, it’s comes like therapy for me. I needed this”.

Constantly aware of the ups and downs of the "music biz". Zi' maintains his opinion, the importance of keeping level headed, humble and staying focused on the goal, is the only way to go if you want to get yourself out there.

"It's a great feeling when someone comes up to you and says 'Your music touched me' It's then, you realize the importance of sharing that gift with the rest of the world".

Zi is now preparing to perform at the 5th Anguilla Jazz Fest in March and the mainstage, Pigeon island and Jazz on the Square, St.Lucia Jazz Festival in May, 2005.