UK/FILE: INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED JAZZ GUITARIST MARTIN TAYLOR IS DUE TO RELEASE HIS DEBUT FOR SONY JAZZ UK ' KISS AND TELL '

Record ID: 388633

  • Title: UK/FILE: INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED JAZZ GUITARIST MARTIN TAYLOR IS DUE TO RELEASE HIS DEBUT FOR SONY JAZZ UK ' KISS AND TELL '
  • Date: 29th September 1999
  • Summary: LONDON, UK (SEPTEMBER 29, 1999) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) MARTIN TAYLOR PLAYING "WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS"Z
  • Embargoed: 14th October 1999 13:00
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  • Location: LONDON, UK AND FILE
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVAE45QCPO12AN2WV0CD1Q44HNFA
  • Story Text: Internationally renowned Jazz guitarist Martin Taylor is due to release his debut album for Sony Jazz UK "Kiss and Tell".Taylor, who has been voted best guitarist at the British Jazz awards seven times, is also joining Diana Krall for her only London concert in December.
    The signing of Martin Taylor to Sony Jazz marks a new level in his international standing, and also signals a major change of style from the swing-based gypsy stylings of his Spirit of Django outfit.
    Instead, the guitarist slipped into a steamy soul jazz groove of the kind favoured by the likes of Wes Montgomery or Grant Green.
    The vibrant Midnight Voyage and a slow, moody reworking of the theme from The Odd Couple augurs well for the forthcoming release.Taylor says "There is really a mixture of songs on the album.Going back to there is some solo guitar tunes on there that I've been playing for quite a while, there are some older jazz standards and some newer tunes with a bigger group and some with strings.There's quite a mixture of material on there, but the thread is the sound of my guitar that brings it all together into an album."
    Taylor's new album "Kiss and Tell" was recorded in Nashville and is produced by Steve Buckingham.
    Fans of Martin's unique style of playing will enjoy solo tracks such as "What a friend we have in Jesus" - a breathtaking piece of one-minute acoustic playing which started out as a doodle during recording sessions: "Well that's a bit of a funny story because I recorded "Midnight at the Oasis" and it was quite different from a lot of the other material on the album, and Steve Buckingham the producer didn't want it to sound a bit disjointed so he said I'll play something before the band comes in I sort of doodle around playing something.I just went into the studio and I started to play things that came off the top of my head and that tune came and I thought I know that, and I played that and after I'd recorded it I came out of the studio into the control room and Steve said yeah I know that, what's that called? I think I used to hear the Salvation Army sing that and the engineer said yeah "What a friend we have in Jesus", it was just something I played off the top of my hat and I'm pleased I did."
    Taylor came to fame in the late 1970s, when he teamed up with violin legend Stephane Grappelli.
    More recently, his collaborations have included Eric Clapton and Peter Frampton on former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings albums.
    He says "I'm playing music that is really American music.
    Jazz came from America and Django Reinhardt, the great Belgian gypsy guitar player, I mean Django and Stephan Grappelli were the first European Jazz musicians really to play Jazz in a European style and to give it another inflection and I think as a European and somebody who has a bit of gypsy blood in him too I think it's inevitable that that comes up.I don't play Jazz the way an American would play because that would just be copying and so it's deep in there, it has to come out I can't help it."
    Taylor's version of Robert Palmer's song Johnny and Mary also became one of the best-known pieces of music across Europe as it featured in the "Nicole/Papa" Renault Clio advert.
    "Kiss and Tell" will be released in the UK on November 11.
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