Last Saturday saw Martin receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ards International Guitar Festival. The award presentation, took place at the end of his solo set, to a standing ovation from the packed house at the Queen's Hall, Newtonards, Northern Ireland, and to the surprise of Martin.

You can now listen online to the 'Spirit of Django Orchestral Suite' The piece was commissioned by the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain, co-written by Martin Taylor & Guy Barker based on 6 of Martin's themes.

This is a very short Coffee Break that was inspired by something I read by the great Swiss philosopher Carl Gustav Jung. I hope it gives you food for thought!

On Friday 31st August I will be performing the "Spirit of Django Orchestral Suite" that I co-wrote with Guy Barker at the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of the BBC Proms.

Due to an internet outage I was unable to go into the Chat Room on Sunday 12th August as planned. I am now re-scheduling this to Sunday 19th August. Apologies for any inconvenience, but it was a technical problem beyond my control. Here's the times... 10.00am US West Coast 12.00pm US East Coast 18.00pm UK 19.00pm Europe I'm also going to arrange another Chat time soon for my students in Asia, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand, as I know not everyone wants to get up in the middle of the night to chat!

I'm really delighted to receive this years Scottish Jazz Award for 'Best Live Jazz" It really means a lot to me to get a music award in my home country for the first time, and I'm particularly pleased as it was by public vote. Most jazz awards tend to favor jazz that's more in the 'cutting edge' category, so it's also very good to see 'melodic jazz' recognized. I'd like to thank everyone that voted for me and for supporting me over the years, and also congratulate my fellow award winners for their well deserved awards.

I've just spent the past week in the studio in Nashville with Tommy Emmanuel recording our duo CD which will be released in November. On Wednesday 11th July I'm playing at the Chet Atkins Convention at the Sheraton Music City in Nashville. My solo set is at 8.30pm. Tommy and I are also playing a set there at 4.45 on Thursday 12th. I look forward to meeting a few MTGA students there! http://www.chetsociety.com/convention.html

Congratulations to MTGA student Ally who has just won the Blackpool Musician of the Year Award. The North West of England has produced many outstanding musicians over the years, including four young lads from Liverpool in the 1960's who went on to do quite well for themselves! We've all watched Ally's dedication and progress through his many video exchanges, and it's great to see his hard work and talent recognized with this award.

Martin is flying to Singapore on Monday 18th June.

Martin and Tommy will be playing four concerts together in June in Oregon and Washington State. 26th Tower Theater, Bend, Oregon 27th McDonald Theater, Eugene, Oregon 29th Bing Crosby Theater, Spokane, WA 30th The Paramount Theater, Seattle, WA Martin and Tommy then head to Nashville to record a duo CD scheduled for release in November, and Martin will be performing in Nashville at the Chet Atkins Convention at the Sheraton Music City. Martin would love to meet up with any MTGA students that can get along to any of these shows. Just leave Martin a message on his Profile page (MartinT)