William Taylor Sr. (April 3, 1906 – September 2, 1986) was an American jazz bassist.
Taylor began playing tuba but later picked up bass alongside it.
After moving to New York City in 1924, he played with Elmer Snowden (1925), Willie Gant and Arthur Gibbs (1926), Charlie Johnson (1927–1929, 1932–1933), Duke Ellington (1928), McKinney's Cotton Pickers (1929–1931), Fats Waller (1934), and Fletcher Henderson.
In the 1940s, he played with Coleman Hawkins (1940), Red Allen (1940–41), Joe Sullivan (1942), Raymond Scott (1942–43), Cootie Williams (1944), Barney Bigard (1944–45), Benny Morton (1945), and Cozy Cole (1945).
Later in the decade he played freelance in New York before moving back to Washington, D.C., in 1949.