Michael E. Taylor, a former music professor and accomplished bassist, died Friday of an apparent heart attack. He would have turned 63 tomorrow.

Mr. Taylor's former wife, Bonnie Taylor, of Silver Spring, Md., said Mr. Taylor died in his family's home in Bridgewater, Beaver County. She said Mr. Taylor was having chest pain on Friday and phoned 911, but when paramedics arrived, he collapsed on the porch.

Nathan Davis, director of the University of Pittsburgh's Jazz Studies program, said he spoke with Mr. Taylor the morning of his death.

"I wanted him to check my sources for a discussion I was preparing about all the great musicians who came from Pittsburgh," Davis said. "That's how highly I thought of him. He was very intelligent and very positive about everything."

For more than three years, Mr. Taylor performed with Pittsburgh pianist Ahmad Jamal, touring Europe and South America.

"He maintained the bass chair in my group," said Jamal. "He played great and had great ears. I remember we would be on the road and he would be studying for his Ph.D. He was very smart, with an intelligent sense of humor."

Mr. Taylor grew up in Bridgewater and attended Beaver High School.

His interest in music -- the upright bass in particular -- can be attributed to his father, Haywood, who was a bassist and member of a family band known as the "Darktown Strutters." The group played jazz, jump blues and dance tunes.

"He was definitely influenced by his father," said Bonnie Taylor, who married Mr. Taylor in 1971. "He also was a humble and kind-spirited person. Even when we were going through the divorce, he was kind and soft-spoken."

After graduating from high school in 1960, Mr. Taylor enrolled in courses at Point Park College but later studied at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. He eventually returned to Pittsburgh and matriculated at Duquesne University, earning a music degree in 1973.

It was around this time that he recorded "Makatuka" with Nathan Davis. The recording, which received a four-star rating from Downbeat magazine, also featured Nelson Harrison, Joe Kennedy, Don DePaolis, Virgil Walters and Wheeler Winstead.

"He was always my first call for a bass player," said Harrison.

Mr. Taylor had national stature, backing up some of the biggest names in jazz -- from Jamal and Milt Jackson to Mary Lou Williams and Woody Shaw.

For years, Mr. Taylor was part of the house band at the old Crawford Grill in the Hill District. He also performed at the New Crawford Grill on the Square. But he had a national audience in the early 1970s, performing with the late Johnny Costa on "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." Costa's trio also included percussionist Bob Rawstorne .

"He was very proud of being associated with 'Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,'" said David Newell, who portrayed Mr. McFeely on the show, which was produced by WQED-TV for broadcast on PBS. "This was an oasis for him after playing in the nightclubs."

Mr. Taylor also was active on the local music scene, performing with a number of groups around town, including those led by Jerry Betters, Joe Negri, Walt Harper and Frank Cunimondo. With Cunimondo, he recorded three albums.

"He was my bass player for seven years," said Cunimondo, who introduced him to the then-Bonnie B. Hart. "One of the songs he wrote for the album 'Echoes' was 'Bonnie B,' a tribute to his wife."

Cunimondo said the last steady engagement he shared with Mr. Taylor was at the "Top Shelf," an old jazz club Downtown.

George Heid, owner of Heid Studios in Aspinwall, met Mr. Taylor in the mid 1960s.

"We formed a quartet in 1974 and worked together for about three years and later formed a quintet," said Heid. "He truly was an unsung hero. Mike was a pure embodiment of jazz. He was giving of the music and giving of his soul."

Betters recalled a comment about Mr. Taylor from jazz legend Billy Eckstine. "I remember Billy saying, 'Mike was one of the world's great bass players.' We had a great time together. He was my friend."

In 1980, Mr. Taylor received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh. In the fall of 2002, he was awarded a doctorate in ethnomusicology from Pitt. For the past several years, he taught music both at Pitt and Penn State University in Beaver.

In addition to his former wife, Mr. Taylor is survived by his son, Michael H. Taylor of Bridgewater, and a stepdaughter, Rickelle Southern of Silver Spring, Md.

Visitation will be tomorrow from 4 to 9 p.m. at Gabauer Funeral Home, 273 Route 68, Rochester. Funeral services will be Saturday at 10 a.m. at Gabauer, with interment following at Sylvania Hills Memorial Park, Rochester.