Jamie Taylor
BA (Hons), MMus

Jamie studied at Leeds College of Music, graduating in 2000 with first class honours and receiving the Eric Kershaw Prize for Plectrum Guitar. After a further year of study, he completed his MMus degree, and was awarded the College Prize for Postgraduate Studies. Jamie was subsequently offered a teaching post at Leeds College of Music, where he now teaches jazz guitar and lectures in Harmony and Aural Awareness. Although in a part-time role at the college today, he was Course Leaderfor the BA (Hons) Jazz programme between 2007 and 2009.

Jamie has performed professionally throughout the UK and overseas, and has worked with leading UK jazz musicians like Alan Barnes, Jim Mullen, Steve Brown, Adrian Ingram, Gary Potter, and Carlos Lopez-Real. In the field of popular music, he has collaborated with Richard Hawley, CANDID recording artist Sarah Mitchell, and Leeds-based indie band The Pigeon Detectives. In 2005 Jamie was a featured artist at the North Wales International Jazz Guitar Festival, sharing the bill with Jim Mullenand ex-'Police' guitarist Andy Summers. Jamie's own group Java was formed in 2003, and has since made numerous festival appearances and two acclaimed CDs. Java features Jamie’s Leeds College of Music colleagues Jamil Sheriff and Garry Jackson, and all three also work together as members of Jamil’s own contemporary big band. At time of writing, this group is rehearsing the leader’s newly commissioned work, which is scheduled to be performed at several UK venues in late 2010, with a recording to follow.  

Jamie also leads regular improvisation work shops in his home city on behalf of Sheffield Jazz, and has done the same for similar organisations elsewhere. He is electric guitar advisor and clinician for Yorkshire Young Musicians and an adjudicator for Harrogate Competitive Festival. He has also been a contributor to the American magazine ‘Just Jazz Guitar’.

Although his research activity has taken a back seat to performance in recent years, Jamie was a delegate at the Association of European Conservatoires Jazz/Pop Platform event at Lausanne in 2008 and has presented conference papers at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the RNCM as well as Leeds College of Music. Along with his erstwhile colleagues Dr. Petter Frost Fadnes and Dr. Catherine Tackley, Jamie co-authored a PALATINE-funded research paper entitled "Integrating Theory and Practice", subsequently published by Cambridge University Press.

Further information, free audio/video, and details of Jamie's performance and recording activity can be found at www.jamie-taylor.com and www.myspace.com/jamietaylorjava

Jamie Taylor endorses Hofner guitars and is a Hofner artist www.hofner.com