Tal Farlow Jazz Guitarist

A devotee of Tal Farlow's work in my teens, thanks to my jazz guitar teacher Peter Dyke, I was delighted in my last year at Leeds College of Music (LCM) to do a research project on the legendary guitarist. I was fortunate to have the help and guidance of the renowned guitarist author Adrian Ingram as well as LCM composition lecturer Dr Graham Hearn. The project formed the basis of the book which led to me actually performing on stage with Tal Farlow at a Leeds College masterclass. This in turn led to Tal taking a personal interest in the book and mentoring me in the process. Hopefully guitarists will find the work useful when looking into Farlow's style and life as well as the Be Bop movement in general.

Shane Hill interview with Tal Farlow

I was fortunate in the mid eighties to be introduced by Tal to Ernie Garside - Farlow's UK tour agent and road manager. Ernie would arrange for Tal and myself to meet up when he was on tour. Often it would be at Ernie's house in Cheshire. We would jam and discuss Farlow's career and influences. This interview however was conducted at The President Hotel in London. We sat in the lobby played and chatted about Tal's approach to improvisation and influences. He would occasionally play an amazing solo guitar intro or explain a harmonic movement. What a privilege it was to be able to spend time with him, a true gentleman and one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time.