His father, once an aspiring concert pianist, exposed his young son to Duke Ellington, Bach, Thelonious Monk, and Mozart.

[6] Upon graduating from Lane Tech in 1991, Chad received a full scholarship to study classical guitar at Millikin University.

In addition, Abrams and Taylor started the collective Sticks and Stones with Matana Roberts that hosted the weekly jam session at The Velvet Lounge.

[8] Rob Mazurek invited him to perform along with Jeff Parker at a weekly composers workshop at The Green Mill which eventually developed into The Chicago Underground ensemble.

The same year Taylor started working with Jeff Parker's Trio with Chris Lopes on bass, releasing Like-Coping in 2003[14] and The Relatives in 2005.

In 2004 Taylor started working with guitarist Marc Ribot in his band Spiritual Unity with Roy Campbell and Henry Grimes.

In 2012 Taylor joined a collaboration with Darius Jones, Sean Conly and Alex Harding called Grass Roots, they recorded and released their self titled album on AUM Fidelity.

[22] In 2019, Taylor formed a new ensemble with tenor saxophonist Brian Settles and pianist Neil Podgurski, which released The Daily Biological for Cuneiform Records in 2020.