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 is now a principal lecturer teaching jazz guitar, Musicianship, and Aural Awareness. Although in a part-time role at the college today, he was Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Jazz programme between 2007 and 2009 and has taught in almost every area of the institution’s jazz curriculum.
Jamie has performed professionally throughout the UK and overseas, at venues including Pizza Express Jazz Club Dean Street, Wavendon Stables, Nottingham Jazz, Sheffield Jazz, Lincoln Drill Hall, The Venue at Leeds College of Music, Manchester Jazz Festival, Stavanger Trad Festival (part of Mai Jazz) and Scarborough Jazz Festival amongst many others.
Along the way, Jamie has worked with leading UK jazz musician, including colleagues on the LCoM jazz faculty, and others like Alan Barnes, Jim Mullen, Steve Brown, Adrian Ingram, Eryl Roberts, 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 Mullen and ex-'Police' guitarist Andy Summers. He has featured on recordings for the jazz labels Candid and GLP.
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.
Jamie has led regular improvisation workshops in his home city on behalf of Sheffield Jazz, and has done the same for similar organizations elsewhere. He is electric guitar advisor and clinician for Yorkshire Young Musicians and has been a contributor to the American magazine ‘Just Jazz Guitar’. Recently, Jamie has reached a considerable international audience through his video jazz guitar lessons, sold online through the American website Mike’s Masterclasses where his instructional material appears alongside that of some of America’s finest jazz musicians.http://www.mikesmasterclasses.com
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
Jamie Taylor endorses Hofner guitars and is a Hofner artist
