Martin Taylor owes much of his formidable reputation as a jazz guitarist to his ability to keep swinging without the aid of a rhythm section.
This is most in evidence when he appears as a soloist, but he has a penchant for duets and also enjoys working with other guitarists.
It takes a good deal of courage for another guitar player to share the stage with Taylor, so it's not surprising that those who have enjoy substantial reputations of their own. The list includes his mentor Ike Isaacs, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, the late Chet Atkins, Gordon Giltrap, Tommy Emmanuel, Ulf Wakenius, Steve Howe and Jeff Beck.
Some of those collaborations are documented on officially released recordings, notably those with Howe, Giltrap and Atkins, but many are not, although there are doubtless bootlegs in circulation.
To remedy this Taylor has embarked on a 10-year project that will see him record a series of guitar duets with musicians he admires. He has chosen, however, to begin the sequence by performing 12 duets with himself: Double Standards, his latest release on The Guitar Label, is the result.
It's not the first time he has done this. Two tracks on 1996's Portraits album, that otherwise consisted of unaccompanied solos and duets with Atkins, were overdubbed duets in which he played both parts, but this is the first album where he has concentrated throughout on the unique possibilities this kind of recording offers a jazz musician.
