HE’s one of the truly great guitarists of a century of jazz, with a sound all of his own rooted in his love of the songs of Robert Burns. Jim Mullen tells me that he “grew up with his songs and their soulful timelessness.” Just listen to his beautiful millennial album Burns and you’ll hear what he means.

He was born in Glasgow in 1945: “It was the post-war baby boom. My dad was a carpenter, my mum worked in a department store. She would sing along to Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra on the radio, and when I began playing I half-knew these songs. As a toddler she would offer to read me a story at night, but I would ask her to sing me a song instead.