From a new fan, "The first words that come to mind are WOW, incredibly, totally awesome. I need a thesaurus for superlatives! John (husband) and I listened to it last night and we were both spellbound. We both read the insert and were further amazed, I can't believe you compose, perform, play numerous instruments, do the art work (I was VERY impressed by that) and produced this. It is truly a work of art. Ten years of piano lessons left him exhausted and me frustrated, but keyboard music of any genre has been my favorite since I was 5. Maybe if I had known about Galileo's father I would not have felt so inadequate! Despite my best efforts, I know very little about music, but I do! know what makes me stop and listen and this definitely did. It made me feel good, it made me smile, it was relaxing and exciting at once and I am so very grateful that you shared it with me." Daryl Anne (listener)

History:

Sam Taylor, Waxahachie, Texas, native; composer-arranger-producer-musici noted for his development and production of recording artists such as KINGS X, GALACTIC COWBOYS, THIRD DAY and The AWFUL TRUTH, wrote, recorded & jammed with various musicians and would-be superstars over the years and was prompted by friend, mystic and cellist Max(ster) Dyer & friend, comrade and percussionist Ray Dillard to perform these compositions late 20th century as the trio, THE MOONS OF JUPITER. Taylor plays acoustic guitar, acoustic piano, arptuba, clarpinet, larynx and organ. Peter Gabriel, Branford Marsalis, Tony Levin and Nexus have utilized Moons' percussionist RAY DILLARD's collaborations & performances on their recordings. Ray Dillard received his Bachelor's and Master's of Music degrees from West Texas State University where he studied percussion with James Beckham and Dr. Thomas Horst and composition with Dr. Joseph Nelson. He has also done concentrated study with percussionist Bob Becker and other members of the group NEXUS. He studied Ghanaian drumming with Abraham Adzenyah and Indian tabla drumming with Pandit Sharda Sahai. Ray has been active for several years commissioning and premiering new works for percussion. He has composed works for percussion soloists and numerous chamber ensembles. Ray was percussionist for the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra for eight years. During that time he was Director of Percussion Studies at West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas, from 1983-1984. He then served as Guest Lecturer and Instructor of Percussion at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, from 1984-1985. Ray then moved to Houston, Texas, to become the head of Percussion and MIDI Technology at San Jacinto College which continued until 1998. Performances with the World Drum Ensemble have taken him to Canada and Australia for performances during the Australian Bicentennial celebration at the World Expo 88 site in Brisbane, Australia. In March, 1996, he performed with BUKA, an eight member all-star ensemble made up of members of the larger World Drum Ensemble, in Taipei, Taiwan. They were the featured group of the Taipei International Music Festival. In the summer of 1998, BUKA was the featured performers at a concert in Lisbon, Portugal for EXPO ‘98. In the summer of 2000, The World Drum Ensemble took the stage again in Hannover, Germany for EXPO 2000. Ray currently resides in Toronto, Canada where he works full time with the percussion ensemble NEXUS and performs in Disney’s The Lion King. Recording credits include Grammy and Juno nominated projects with artists and ensembles from the United States, South America, Europe, Japan and Canada. His recording work with the Toronto-based percussion ensemble NEXUS includes some 12 titles, the most recent featuring clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. These and other percussion rich works are at the core of his most popular work. Ray’s work can also be heard on recordings spanning styles as varied as Renaissance, Classical, jazz, rock, contemporary Christian, Tejano, and experimental music. MAX DYER is a cellist with over 25 years of professional experience in the United States and abroad. As an improvising cellist, he is fluent in many musical styles and performs at festivals, jazz and folk clubs, churches and recording studios. He is producer for Nightwatch recording and Artistic Director of the New World Renaissance Band. This season, Max is In the recording studio with Blackfeet Indian singer/songwriter Jack Gladstone, the speed metal rock band Galactic Cowboys, MCA Artists The Jay Quinn Band, his Renaissance Festival quartet CANTIGA and Nashville-based Contemporary Gospel singers Kim Hill and multi-platinum multi- Grammy recipient Michael W. Smith. As a classical cellist, he plays with the Houston Ballet Orchestra and performed and toured for three seasons with the Houston Symphony. During the past year he has also performed with the Houston Grand Opera, Houston String Quartet and with the Michele Brangwen Dance Company. During the 70's, Max toured widely in Great Britain and Sweden with the Fisherfolk, a Christian folk group working in the charismatic renewal of the church. As a member of the Fisherfolk, he led worship in churches and cathedrals throughout Great Britain and led music residencies at Oxford University and Kings College Cambridge. Max holds a Bachelors of Music Degree from the University of Houston and a Masters Degree from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music where he studied with Shirley Trepel. Outside of the stuffy classical environment, known for his improvisational style more akin to Jimi Hendrix than YO YO MA, Max was recruited to play cello on Wilde Silas Musicworks' (Taylor's production company) production of KINGS X's, GALACTIC COWBOYS and THIRD DAY recordings under Taylor's production guidance. Known for his passionate performances, Max once broke a two thousand dollar bow during an improvised section of a Moons' performance.