By Kenny Mathieson

Guitarist Martin Taylor became the latest British jazz musician to be honoured with the award of a MBE (Member of the British Empire) in the Queen's Honours list this summer. The guitarist received his award for services to British jazz, and professed himself suitably taken aback at this recognition by the establishment.

"I was completely amazed and absolutely thrilled when I heard that I had been put forward for an MBE. I was recording in Japan at the time with the singer and pianist Keiko Lee, and we stopped the session for a wee while to crack open a bottle or two of champagne. It really is an honour to be recognised in this way for doing what I love doing best. Music has been my life's inspiration and I couldn't imagine ever doing anything else."

Taylor follows the likes of George Chisholm, John Dankworth, Cleo Lane, Ronnie Scott, Stan Tracey and Courtney Pine on to the honours list, but it hasn't always been such a rosy scenario for the guitarist. In his autobiography, Kiss and Tell (2000), he described how he briefly contemplated suicide at the nadir of a bad period in the mid-80s, when work was scarce and financial problems pressing.

Instead, the guitarist hauled himself out of his despondency, and launched on what has become the most successful phase of his career. Although born in Essex, Taylor has been based in Scotland for many years, and has used his Ayrshire home as a base for an increasingly international career.

His new album, simply entitled Solo, marks a return to the unaccompanied guitar format in the wake of his two more contemporary group outings for Sony Jazz, Kiss & Tell and Nitelife.

The end of his contract with Sony also sees Martin moving to a new label, P3 Music. The label is run by his manager, James Taylor, who also happens to be his eldest son (another son, Stewart, is a jockey), and his partner, Alison Burns.

P3 has already issued a re-release of Martin’s first solo guitar project, Tribute to Art Tatum, originally issued on HEP Records in 1984. The reissue, now entitled Sketches, also includes Martin’s first ever recordings, three tracks which he cut in 1978 with the man he considered to be his mentor, the late Ike Isaacs.

“I was very proud of the two records I made for Sony, but now I'm looking forward to this next chapter in my life. The new album was recorded in Nashville at the same studio we used for the Sony albums. It’s mainly jazz standards, and we did it solo without any overdubs."

Steve Buckingham, the producer of the record, and engineer Neal Cappellino came up with a way of recording the guitar which Tyalor thinks is the best sound he has ever had on a record. For the tech heads among you, the CD insert carries a detailed description of just how they did it.

Martin’s return to jazz standards on this record will please those who frowned upon his apparent move into a fusion or smooth jazz style on his Sony albums, but he has always argued that he was a guitarist first and a jazz musician second, and has never made any secret of his desire to reach as wide an audience as possible with his music.

"The guitar fanatics are everywhere - it is still as popular as ever, and I like to think that anyone who likes the sound of the guitar would get something from my music. The guitar is a never-ending study, and I like all kinds of guitar playing. Jazz was my first love, but if for some reason I couldn't play it anymore, I would still play guitar."

His string of albums for Linn Records had already established him as the best selling jazz instrumentalist in the UK, but the deal with Sony Jazz opened up a whole new prospective audience in the USA, and the radio-friendly nature of much of the music on these albums reflected that fact.

“I knew there might be people who knew my music who may not have liked the direction I took with Kiss & Tell and Nitelife, but there are an awful lot of people out there who didn’t know me, and I thought they might be attracted by hearing this approach on the radio or whatever. “Air-play is really important in the American market, and definitely generates sales, but the radio stations are very specific on what they will and won’t programme. If you sign with a major label in that market, you have to play the game to some degree. I felt there was a way for me to make music that would be played there, but without compromising my own standards or principles.”

While it is legitimate for long-term fans to prefer his more mainstream styles, the touring version of the Nitelife band made it plain to see why he enjoyed playing that music so much, and why he was unconcerned about accusations that he had turned his back on jazz. His playing, and that of his band, demolished that argument.

Martin’s other projects have included a long spell working with Stephane Grappelli, and leading his own more contemporary variation on the Hot Club-model, Spirit of Django, as well as many collaborations. They include musicians as diverse as Count Basie, Chet Atkins and Bill Wyman.

For a jazzman, though, playing solo is arguably the ultimate challenge. Martin has made a speciality of that, and has developed a breath-takingly virtuoso approach based on an apparently miraculous ability to create simultaneous melody, chordal harmony and bass lines.

The music remains firmly rooted in the eternal verities of tonal beauty, lucid phrasing, respect for the melodic contours of a tune, and a harmonic clarity founded on logical extrapolation from the given chords, which is one of the reasons why he continues to be so fascinated by the standard repertoire.

"I think I keep going back to the standards because those tunes really are timeless - you can play them in a contemporary way and still retain their harmonic richness, and certain tunes have become a fascination, maybe even an obsession."

Visit Kenny Mathieson's website at http://www.kenmat.dircon.co.uk/.