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Nelson Taveras

Nelson Ramón Taveras was an Afro-Dominican jazz pianist, saxophonist, and educator born in Washington Heights on June 18, 1976, to parents who had immigrated from Santo Domingo. He directed LaGuardia High School’s jazz ensemble during Charlie Rivera and Peter Liu’s high-school years.

Early Life and Education

Nelson’s parents came to New York from Santo Domingo in the early 1970s. His father drove a cab, and his mother cleaned Midtown offices. When a neighbor gave away a secondhand upright piano, his father and two friends removed its legs and angled it through their apartment door so Nelson could play it.

Nelson learned church hymns by ear at seven and worked through a donated Hanon exercise book at nine. By twelve he was playing piano at church and sitting in with older neighborhood musicians. He took up saxophone through his public middle-school band, then attended George Washington High School in Washington Heights. A scholarship took him to the Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in jazz studies and studied jazz piano. As an Afro-Dominican, Black, working-class student, he found that the conservatory’s assumptions about musical preparation and belonging did not match the route by which he had arrived there.

Music and Teaching Career

Nelson later earned an M.S.Ed. in Music Education from the City College of New York. He chose teaching alongside performance after seeing talented young musicians from neighborhoods like his miss opportunities for lack of guidance toward auditions and further training.

He performed on piano and saxophone with the Nelson Taveras Quartet at clubs in Harlem, Greenwich Village, and Brooklyn, including Smoke Jazz Club. The quartet explored Afro-Caribbean rhythms alongside American jazz and released several albums on small independent labels. Nelson continued playing late sets while teaching and brought ideas from his gigs and his own practice into the classroom.

At LaGuardia, where he began directing the jazz ensemble in the early 2010s, Nelson expected students to understand jazz as a living musical tradition. He taught the lineage behind arrangements and compared musicians’ interpretations, including those of Dizzy Gillespie and Arturo Sandoval. He rarely raised his voice in rehearsal. An exceptional performance drew a nod; a careless one drew an “again” and another attempt.

Personal Life

Nelson continued living in Washington Heights, in an apartment with a Yamaha U3 piano bought with years of gig earnings. He kept his saxophone by the door for short-notice performances. He was divorced and had no children. He described the end of his marriage briefly: “she wanted someone who came home before midnight and didn’t smell like a jazz club. She was right to want that.”

He stayed connected to former students as fellow musicians: he listened to their albums and attended their New York performances, usually standing toward the back.

Health

Nelson had migraines from his twenties and later developed cluster headaches, with attacks concentrated behind one eye and recurring in cycles. In 2013–14, when he was in his late thirties, a portable stage collapsed during a performance. Back, shoulder, and nerve injuries left him with chronic pain.

He encountered medical dismissal when seeking help. Clinicians suggested Tylenol, ibuprofen, stress management, yoga, and physical therapy he could not afford on a teacher’s salary; one characterized his account as “catastrophizing.” Nelson continued teaching and performing while keeping much of his pain private. His own experience of being disbelieved informed the space he made for Charlie without demanding an explanation of Charlie’s illness.

Mentorship of Charlie Rivera

Main article: Nelson Taveras and Charlie Rivera

Charlie became first-chair saxophonist by October of his freshman year in 2021. Nelson recognized both his ability and the signs that he was playing through illness. He placed a chair by the rehearsal-room door so Charlie could sit without asking, arranged parts for seated playing, and continued giving him demanding solos despite severe absences. When another faculty member questioned Charlie’s first-chair position, Nelson said, “He misses school. He doesn’t miss music.”

When he handed Charlie a part, Nelson sometimes told him, “this is yours.” After Charlie’s November 2023 suicide attempt, Nelson kept the same musical expectations when Charlie returned to rehearsal and handed him a new arrangement with those words. Years later, Charlie credited Nelson in interviews for “never making me explain why I needed to sit down.” Their relationship continued after Charlie left LaGuardia for Juilliard, extending beyond the original teacher-student mentorship.

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