Michael Taylor

Taylor (aka Michael Taylor) is a bi-racial Chicago area percussionist, entrepreneur, educator, recording artist, performer and facilitator, specializing in the West African djembe and dunun drums. He authored the book Remembering Your Ancestral Fire - A Bi-Racial Man's Unlikely Journey of Self-Discovery, Heeding the Call of the Djembe in 2023. He founded his business Holy Goat Percussion in 1995, is the Director of the Tam Tam Mandingue Djembe Academy-Chicago School of Percussion (2006), a branch of the Tam Tam Mandingue Djembe Academy international schools. He received the TTMDA Instructor certificate, a degree in djembe offered exclusively by Grand Master Drummer Mamady Keita in 2005 and was the first person in the world to take and pass the highest level test of what is now called TTMDA Senior Instructor in 2006. Taylor is a lead facilitator with Sewa Beats, Intl using the music of the djembe as a metaphor for professional success for corporations all over the world. You can also find him teaching at Tam Tam Mandingue Djembe Academy-Chicago, the Old Town School of Folk Music, the Merit School of Music, The Theatre School of Depaul University, Chicago Waldorf School, After School Matters, in the Chicago Public Schools, the Cook County Department of Corrections and privately at his studios in Oak Park.