Martin Taylor (guitarist)

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Martin Taylor at the INNtöne Jazzfestival 2017

Martin Taylor (born October 20, 1956 in Harlow ) is a British jazz guitarist , who is also known as a fingerstyle guitarist . According to the Jazz Rough Guide and Allmusic , he is considered one of the world's best guitarists.

Live and act

Taylor comes from a musical family with a gypsy background . At the age of four he received guitar lessons from his father, bassist William "Buck" Taylor, who played the music of the Quintette du Hot Club de France , so that Taylor initially took Django Reinhardt as a model. At the age of eight he played regularly in his father's band. At the age of 15, he left school to become a professional musician. He played in Lennie Hastings ' orchestra , but also joined the Count Basie Orchestra . In the next few years he played frequently in London in a duo with both Peter Ind and Ike Isaacs , who now influenced him. He also introduced him to Stéphane Grappelli , in whose band he played for a while in the 1980s. Martin Taylor played with Stéphan Grappelli for 11 years. With Grappelli he also performed in North America, where he met David Grisman , with whom he recorded the album Sarabanda . Then he concentrated on his solo career, released his first LP ( skye boat ) in 1982 and recorded several albums for the Linn Records label . In the mid-1990s he founded the band Spirit of Django , but also continued to tour solo. For a while he was part of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings . Taylor also wrote a textbook.

In 2007 he was honored as best guitarist with both the BBC Jazz Awards and the British Jazz Awards . In 2012 he received the Scottish Jazz Award in the Live Jazz category .

Discographic notes

  • Skye Boat (1982), Concord CJ-184
  • Sketches: A Tribute to Art Tatum (1984/1978)
  • Sarabanda (1987, with David Grisman)
  • Artistry (1990, solo)
  • Reunion (with Stephane Grappelli; 1993)
  • Spirit of Django (1994)
  • Portraits (with Chet Atkins , 1995)
  • Kiss and Tell (1999)
  • The Valley (with Bryn Terfel , Sacha Distel and Simon Dinnigan; 2004)
  • First time together! (with Frank Vignola and David Grisman; 2012)
  • The Colonel & The Governor (with Tommy Emmanuel ; 2013)

Lexical entries

Web links

Commons : Martin Taylor (musician)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Greg Friedmann: Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine 2003, pp. 41f.
  2. ^ Martin Taylor and David Mead: The Autobiography of a Traveling Musician 2005, ISBN 1-86074-642-X , pp. 103-105.
  3. ↑ Alexander Schmitz: The guitar in jazz. Supplementary considerations on JE Berendt's article. In: Guitar & Laute 5, 1983, Issue 1, pp. 82-84; here: p. 84.
  4. ↑ Martin Taylor with David Mead: The Martin Taylor Guitar Method 2002, ISBN 0-7866-6503-3 .
personal data
SURNAME Taylor, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Harlow (Essex)