Taylor was born in Los Angeles, California. From his earliest years he was involved in music, playing the piano by age five and serving as organist in southern California churches by age 14. He also became a skilled performer on trumpet, playing in both the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic and Southwest Youth Symphony orchestras.

Taylor attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he completed a degree in 1970. His senior recital was a well-attended event on campus and became historic when he became the first organist in the 150 years of the school to improvise an encore, an eleven-minute extemporization on O Du Froliche, Weinachtzeit. He continued his study in music at the University of Michigan on full scholarship where he completed an M.Mus. in 1974, having studied organ with Marilyn Mason and composition with Leslie Bassett.

While at the UM, Taylor successfully auditioned for a music position at the Voice of Prophecy. In his role as soloist and accompanist, he traveled extensively with the musicians associated with VOP until 1977. He then left to pursue a concert career, do studio arranging, and take additional study in composition and arranging at the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Dick Grove School of Music. While at DGSM in the early 1980's, he had the opportunity to study with Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, David Raskin, Peter Matz, and Dick Grove. He received a diploma from DGSM in 1982.

Taylor subsequently completed a D.M.A. in music composition at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. His dissertation was a five-movement symphony with movements titled Processional for the Human Spirit, Inner-city Sunrise, Sonnet of Praise, An Epistle for Pharaoh, and Choral Fantasia on Deep River. Two of the movements, Inner-city Sunrise and Choral Fantasia on Deep River, have been performed by orchestras in subsequent years.

Taylor has received numerous awards, scholarships, and prizes, the earliest being a Bank of America Award in 1966, when he was eighteen. He received a scholarship to attend Oberlin, the Horace H. Rackham Graduate Scholarship at UM, and additional awards at the University of Kentucky. While at UM, he was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, national music honor society.

He was winner of the Unisys African American Composers Residency and National Symposium in 1998, a program affiliated with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. This honor included a reading and recording of Inner-city Sunrise by the orchestra under the direction of Kay George Roberts. Taylor received the William C. Parker Academic Achievement Award at UK in 1998-99.

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