UNDOUBTEDLY, the greatest compliment I have ever received in an extremely modest musical career, was when my girlfriend asked me one day whether I was listening to a tape of myself practising on the guitar.
But the crisp, clean jazz guitar tones emanating from the speakers were in fact coming from Stanley Jordan's Standards Volume 1. I replied, of course, that if I could play the guitar like that I would give up my day job tomorrow.
I first witnessed the phenomenon of Stanley Jordan about 10 years ago, on the British music programme The Tube. Jordan stood in the middle of the crowd, armed with nothing more than an ordinary electric guitar, and performed a solo instrumental version of the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, in the process accomplishing feats of musical dexterity which defied belief.
Jordan remembers the occasion, which was early in his career: 'I think it was 86 maybe,' he said, speaking between sets from Jakarta's Blue Note Jazz Club.
'I didn't know what they were gonna make of it, 'cos it was kind of a new wave dressed audience - a lot of young people - so I didn't know what they would think. But it seemed like they really liked it.' Hardly surprising. Even if Jordan's brand of jazz guitar is not your cup of tea, it is hard not to be impressed by his technique.
Like most guitarists, he plays with two hands. But while the conventional style dictates that you create notes with the left hand, and sound them with the right (or the reverse for left-handers), Jordan's style involves playing notes with the fingers of both hands, much like a keyboard player does.
His left hand sounds chord progressions and bass runs on the lower frets, while the right, using the 'finger tapping' technique against the fretboard, plays the melody.