Bert Jansch

Herbert Jansch (meglio conosciuto come Bert Jansch) (Glasgow, 3 novembre 1943 – Hampstead, 5 ottobre 2011) è stato un chitarrista scozzese, dedito soprattutto alla musica folk e al blues.
È stato membro fondatore dei Pentangle. Negli anni sessanta ha subito l'influenza del chitarrista Davey Graham e della cantante folk Anne Briggs. È conosciuto soprattutto per l'innovativo stile chitarristico, ma è anche cantante e cantautore.
La sua opera ha influenzato artisti come Bernard Butler, Jimmy Page, Ian Anderson, Nick Drake, Donovan, Johnny Marr (chitarrista degli Smiths) e Neil Young. La sua instancabile opera di rielaborazione di materiale folk britannico anglosassone gli è valsa il premio Lifetime Achievement Award dalla BBC (2001).

I primi anni

Jansch nasce allo Stobhill Hospital di Glasgow, ma cresce a Edimburgo, dove frequenta la Pennywell Primary School e la Ainsley Park Secondary School. È un teenager quando acquista la prima chitarra e inizia a frequentare il folk club locale The Howff, gestito da Roy Guest. Vi incontra Archie Fisher e Jill Doyle (sorellastra di Davey Graham), che lo introduce alla musica di Big Bill Broonzy, Pete Seeger, Brownie McGhee e Woody Guthrie. Ha anche occasione di incontrare Robin Williamson (che fonderà poi l'Incredible String Band), con cui, nel 1963, viaggia verso Londra.

Discografia

Album

1965 Bert Jansch
1965 It Don't Bother Me
1966 Lucky Thirteen (pubblicazione per gli Stati Uniti, contenente estratti dai due precedenti album)
1966 Bert And John (con John Renbourn)
1966 Jack Orion
1967 Nicola
1969 Birthday Blues
1971 Rosemary Lane
1973 Moonshine
1974 L.A. Turnaround
1975 Santa Barbara Honeymoon
1976 A Rare Conundrum (inizialmente pubblicato in Danimarca e l'anno dopo nel Regno Unito)
1978 Avocet (inizialmente pubblicato in Danimarca e l'anno dopo nel Regno Unito)
1980 Thirteen Down (accreditato al Bert Jansch Conundrum)
1982 Heartbreak
1985 From The Outside (pubblicato in Belgio)
1989 Leather Launderette (con Rod Clements)
1990 The Ornament Tree
1990 Sketches
1993 From the Outside
1995 When the Circus Comes to Town
1998 Toy Balloon
2000 Crimson Moon
2002 Edge of A Dream
2006 The Black Swan

Singoli/EP

1966 Needle of Death (EP)
1967 Life Depends on Love/A Little Sweet Sunshine
1973 Oh My Father/The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face
1974 In The Bleak Midwinter/One For Jo (non-album A-side)
1975 Dance Lady Dance/Build Another Band
1978 Black Birds of Brittany/The Mariner's Farewell
1980 Time and Time/Una Linea Di Dolcezza
1982 Heartbreak Hotel/Up To The Stars
1985 Playing the Game/After the Long Night
2003 On the Edge of a Dream/Walking This Road/Crimson Moon

Compilation

1969 Bert Jansch: The Bert Jansch Sampler
1972 Box Of Love: The Bert Jansch Sampler Volume 2
1986 Strolling Down The Highway
1992 The Gardener: Essential Bert Jansch
1993 Three Chord Trick
2000 Dazzling Stranger: The Bert Jansch Anthology

Live

1980 Bert Jansch Live at La Foret (pubblicato solo in Giappone)
1993 BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert
1996 Live at the 12 Bar:An Authorised Bootleg
1997 Blackwaterside
1998 Young Man Blues
2001 Downunder: Live in Australia
2004 The River Sessions
2007 Fresh As a Sweet Sunday Morning (Live 2006)

Herbert "Bert" Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s, as an acoustic guitarist, as well as a singer-songwriter. He recorded at least 25 albums and toured extensively from the 1960s to the 21st century.
Jansch was a leading figure in the British folk music revival of the 1960s, touring folk clubs and recording several solo albums, as well as collaborating with other musicians such as John Renbourn and Anne Briggs. In 1968, he co-founded the band Pentangle, touring and recording with them until their break-up in 1972. He then took a few years' break from music, returning in the late 1970s to work on a series of projects with other musicians. He joined a reformed Pentangle in the early 1980s and remained with them as they evolved through various changes of personnel until 1995. Until his death, Jansch continued to work as a solo artist.
Jansch's work influenced such artists as Al Stewart, Paul Simon, Johnny Marr, Elton John, Ian Anderson, Bernie Taupin, Bernard Butler, Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Graham Coxon, Donovan, Neil Young, Fleet Foxes, Devendra Banhart, Neil Halstead, and Roy Harper.
Jansch received two Lifetime Achievement Awards at the BBC Folk Awards: one, in 2001, for his solo achievements and the other, in 2007, as a member of Pentangle.

Early years

Herbert Jansch was born at Stobhill Hospital in the Springburn district of Glasgow, in 1943, the descendant of a family originally from Hamburg, Germany, who settled in Scotland during the Victorian era. The family name is most often pronounced as /ˈjænʃ/ yansh, although Jansch himself, like several other members of his family, pronounced it /ˈdʒænʃ/ jansh.
Jansch was brought up in the residential area of Edinburgh known as West Pilton, where he attended Pennywell Primary School and Ainslie Park Secondary School. As a teenager, he acquired a guitar and started visiting a local folk club ("The Howff") run by Roy Guest. There, he met Archie Fisher and Jill Doyle (Davey Graham's half-sister), who introduced him to the music of Big Bill Broonzy, Pete Seeger, Brownie McGhee and Woody Guthrie. He also met and shared a flat with Robin Williamson, who remained a friend when Jansch later moved to London.
After leaving school, Jansch took a job as a nurseryman then, in August 1960, he gave this up, intending to become a full-time musician. He appointed himself as an unofficial caretaker at The Howff and, as well as sleeping there, he may have received some pay to supplement his income as a novice performer who did not own his own guitar. He spent the next two years playing one-night stands in British folk clubs. This was a musical apprenticeship that exposed him to a range of influences, including Martin Carthy and Ian Campbell, but especially Anne Briggs, from whom he learned some of the songs (such as "Blackwaterside" and "Reynardine") that would later feature strongly in his recording career.
Between 1963 and 1965, Jansch travelled around Europe and beyond, hitch-hiking from place to place and living on earnings from busking and casual musical performances in bars and cafes. Before leaving Glasgow, he married a 16-year-old girl, Lynda Campbell. It was a marriage of convenience which allowed her to travel with him as she was too young to have her own passport. They split up after a few months and Jansch was eventually repatriated to Britain after catching dysentery in Tangiers.

London (mid-1960s)

Jansch moved to London where in 1963, at the invitation of Bob Wilson, a Staffordshire folksinger who was also an art student at St Martin's College of Art, he was asked to take over as resident singer at Bunjies on Great Litchfield Street with Charles Pearce, another art student. They remained in that situation for a year before Pearce moved to South London to run several clubs south of the Thames. There was a burgeoning interest in folk music throughout London by then. There, he met the engineer and producer Bill Leader, at whose home they made a recording of Jansch's music on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Leader sold the tape for £100 to Transatlantic Records, who produced an album directly from it. The album Bert Jansch was released in 1965 and went on to sell 150,000 copies. It included Jansch's protest song "Do You Hear Me Now," which was brought to the attention of the pop music mainstream later that year by the singer Donovan, who covered it on his Universal Soldier EP, which reached No. 1 in the UK EP chart and No. 27 in the singles chart. Pearce disappeared from Jansch's life after arranging for him to be one of the artists in the Liberal International concert, "Master of the Guitar" at the Royal Festival Hall in 1968. Also included in Jansch's first album was his song "Needle of Death," a stark anti-drugs lament written after a friend died of a heroin overdose.
In his early career, Jansch was sometimes characterized as a British Bob Dylan. During this period, Jansch described his musical influences as "the only three people that I've ever copied were Big Bill Broonzy, Davy Graham and Archie Fisher." Jansch followed his first album with two more, produced in quick succession: It Don't Bother Me and Jack Orion—which contained his first recording of "Blackwaterside," later to be taken up by Jimmy Page and recorded by Led Zeppelin as "Black Mountain Side." Jansch said, "The accompaniment was nicked by a well-known member of one of the most famous rock bands, who used it, unchanged, on one of their records." Transatlantic took legal advice about the alleged copyright infringement and were advised that there was "a distinct possibility that Bert might win an action against Page." Ultimately, Transatlantic were dubious about the costs involved in taking on Led Zeppelin in the courts, and half the costs would have had to be paid by Jansch personally, which he simply could not afford, so the case was never pursued. The arrangement and recording of Jack Orion was greatly influenced by Jansch's friend, singer Anne Briggs.
In London, Jansch met other innovative acoustic guitar players, including John Renbourn, with whom he shared a flat in Kilburn), Davey Graham, Wizz Jones, Roy Harper and Paul Simon. They would all meet and play in various London music clubs, including the Troubadour in Old Brompton Road, and Les Cousins club in Greek Street, Soho. Renbourn and Jansch frequently played together, developing their own intricate interplay between the two guitars, often referred to as "Folk baroque."
In 1966, they recorded the Bert and John album together, featuring much of this material. Late in 1967 they tired of the all-nighters at Les Cousins and became the resident musicians at a music venue set up by Bruce Dunnet, a Scottish entrepreneur, at the Horseshoe pub (now defunct), at 264–267 Tottenham Court Road. This became the haunt of a number of musicians, including the singer Sandy Denny. Another singer, Jacqui McShee, began performing with the two guitarists and, with the addition of Danny Thompson (string bass) and Terry Cox (drums), they formed the group, Pentangle. The venue evolved into a jazz club, but by then the group had moved on.
On 19 October 1968, Jansch married Heather Sewell. At the time, she was an art student and had been the girlfriend of Roy Harper. She inspired several of Jansch's songs and instrumentals, the most obvious being "Miss Heather Rosemary Sewell" from his 1968 album Birthday Blues, but Jansch says that, despite the name, "M'Lady Nancy" from the 1971 Rosemary Lane album was also written for her. As Heather Jansch she has become a well-known sculptor.

Pentangle years: 1968–73

Pentangle's first major concert was at the Royal Festival Hall in 1967, and their first album was released in the following year. Pentangle embarked on a demanding schedule of touring the world and recording and, during this period, Jansch largely gave up solo performances. He did, however, continue to record, releasing Rosemary Lane in 1971. The tracks for this album were recorded on a portable tape recorder by Bill Leader at Jansch's cottage in Ticehurst, Sussex—a process which took several months, with Jansch only working when he was in the right mood.
Pentangle reached their highest point of commercial success with the release of their Basket of Light album in 1969. The single, Light Flight, taken from the album became popular through its use as theme music for a TV drama series Take Three Girls for which the band also provided incidental music. In 1970, at the peak of their popularity, they recorded a soundtrack for the film Tam Lin, made at least 12 television appearances, and undertook tours of the UK, including the Isle of Wight Festival, and America, including a concert at Carnegie Hall). However, their fourth album, Cruel Sister, released in October 1970, was a commercial disaster. This was an album of traditional songs that included a 20-minute-long version of Jack Orion, a song that Jansch and Renbourn had recorded previously as a duo on Jansch's Jack Orion album.
Pentangle recorded two further albums, but the strains of touring and of working together as a band were taking their toll. Then Pentangle withdrew from their record company, Transatlantic, in a bitter dispute regarding royalties. The final album of the original incarnation of Pentangle was Solomon's Seal released by Warner Brothers/Reprise in 1972. Colin Harper describes it as "a record of people's weariness, but also the product of a unit whose members were still among the best players, writers and musical interpreters of their day." Pentangle split up in January 1973, and Jansch and his wife bought a farm near Lampeter, in Wales, and withdrew temporarily from the concert circuit.

Late 1970s

After two years as a farmer, Jansch left his wife and family and returned to music, although Jansch and his wife would not be formally divorced until 1988. In 1977, he recorded the album A Rare Conundrum with a new set of musicians: Mike Piggott, Rod Clements and Pick Withers. He then formed the band Conundrum with the addition of Martin Jenkins (violin) and Nigel Smith (bass). They spent six months touring Australia, Japan and the United States. With the end of the tour, Conundrum parted company and Jansch spent six months in the United States, where he recorded the Heartbreak album with Albert Lee.
Jansch toured Scandinavia, working as a duo with Martin Jenkins and, based on ideas they developed, recorded the Avocet album (initially released in Denmark). Jansch rates this as among his own favourites from his own recordings. On returning to England, he set up Bert Jansch's Guitar Shop at 220, New King's Road, Fulham. The shop specialised in hand-built acoustic guitars but was not a commercial success and closed after two years.

1980s

In 1980, an Italian promoter encouraged the original Pentangle to reform for a tour and a new album. The reunion started badly, with Terry Cox being injured in a car accident, resulting in the band's debuting at the Cambridge Folk Festival as a four-piece Pentangle. They managed to complete a tour of Italy (with Cox in a wheelchair) and Australia, before Renbourn left the band in 1983. There then followed a series of personnel changes, including Mike Piggott replacing John Renbourn from 1983 to 1987 and recording Open the Door and In the Round, but ultimately leaving Jansch and McShee as the only original members. The final incarnation consisting of Jansch, McShee, Nigel Portman Smith (keyboards), Peter Kirtley (guitar and vocals) and Gerry Conway (drums) survived from 1987 to 1995 and recorded three albums: Think of Tomorrow, One More Road and Live 1994. As a solo artist in the mid-1980s, he often appeared on Vivian Stanshall and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall's showboat, the Old Profanity Showboat, in Bristol's Floating Harbour.
In 1985 two intriguingly enigmatic limited edition albums appeared, issued under the name of Loren Auerbach, who was to become his wife. After the Long Night was released in February 1985 with the second, Playing the Game appearing in October. Bert Jansch was guest player initially but also became a writer on some of the songs, as well as an arranger and co-vocalist. Richard Newman was the primary guitarist and songwriter. Loren Auerbach had worked alongside Richard Newman for many years before meeting Bert Jansch. Newman and Jansch were the key players on After the Long Night. On Playing the Game, Jansch and Newman joined Cliff Aungier, Geoff Bradford (lead guitarist from Cyril Davis' All Stars, from Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, and in the first line-up of The Rolling Stones) and Brian Knight (British blues veteran of the Blues By Six). The two albums became one—After The Long Night / Playing The Game. Bert Jansch played guitar with Richard Newman on the following Newman songs: "I Can't Go Back," "Smiling Faces," "Playing the Game," "Sorrow," "Days and Nights," "The Rainbow Man," "Frozen Beauty," "Christabel," "So Lonely," and "The Miller." All songs were sung by Auerbach with the exception of "The Miller," which was sung by Newman. Bert married Loren Auerbach in 1999.
He had always been a heavy drinker, but in 1987 he fell ill while working with Rod Clements and Marty Craggs, and was rushed to hospital, where he was told that he was "as seriously ill as you can be without dying" and that he had a choice of "giving up alcohol or simply giving up." He chose the former option: Colin Harper states that "There can be no doubt that Bert's creativity, reliability, energy, commitment and quality of performance were all rescued dramatically by the decision to quit boozing." Jansch and Clements continued the work they had started before Jansch's illness, resulting in the 1988 Leather Launderette album.

Final years and death: 1992–2011

Bert was the prime mover in the Acoustic Routes film, first broadcast by the BBC in 1992. It shows him revisiting his old haunts and reminiscing with guests such as Al Stewart, Anne Briggs, John Renbourn, and Davey Graham.
From 1995, Jansch appeared frequently at the 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street, London. One of his live sets there was recorded direct to Digital Audio Tape (DAT) by Jansch's then manager, Alan King, and was released as the Live at the 12 Bar: an official bootleg album in 1996. In 2002 Jansch, Bernard Butler and Johnny "Guitar" Hodge performed live together at the Jazz Cafe, London. Bernard Butler had also appeared on Bert's 2002 album Edge of a Dream featuring, among others, Ralph McTell and guitarist Paul Wassif. The instrumental "Black Cat Blues," featuring Paul Wassif, appeared on the 2003 film Calendar Girls, and Wassif became a frequent sideman at Bert's live shows. In 2003, Jansch celebrated his 60th birthday with a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The BBC organised a concert for Jansch and various guests at the church of St Luke Old Street, which was televised on BBC Four.
In 2005, Jansch teamed up again with one of his early influences, Davey Graham, for a small number of concerts in England and Scotland. His concert tour had to be postponed, owing to illness, and Jansch underwent major heart surgery in late 2005. By 2006 he had recovered and was playing concerts again. Jansch's album The Black Swan, his first for four years, was released on Sanctuary on 18 September 2006, featuring Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart on tracks "Katie Cruel," "When the Sun Comes Up," and "Watch the Stars," among other guests. In 2007, he was featured on Babyshambles album, Shotter's Nation, playing acoustic guitar in the song "The Lost Art of Murder." After recording, he accompanied Babyshambles' lead singer Pete Doherty on several acoustic gigs, and performed on the Pete and Carl Reunion Gig, where ex-Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things singer Carl Barat joined Doherty on stage.
In 2009 he played a concert at the London Jazz Cafe to celebrate the release of three of his older albums (LA Turnaround, Santa Barbara Honeymoon and A Rare Conundrum) on CD format. However, later that year, due to an unexpected illness, he had to cancel a 22-date North American tour that was due to start on 26 June. Jansch's website reported: "Bert is very sorry to be missing the tour, and apologises to all the fans who were hoping to see him. He is looking forward to rescheduling as soon as possible."
Jansch opened for Neil Young on his Twisted Road solo tour in the US and Canada, starting on 18 May 2010. He also performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads festival in June 2010. These were Jansch's first shows since his illness. One of Bert's last recording sessions was with Eric Clapton for Paul Wassif's 2011 album Looking Up Feeling Down. In 2011, a few reunion gigs took place with Pentangle, including performances at the Glastonbury Festival and one final concert at the Royal Festival Hall, London, which was also Jansch's last ever public performance.
Jansch died on 5 October 2011, aged 67, at a hospice in Hampstead after a long battle with lung cancer.
He is buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Recognition and awards

In 2001 Jansch received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and on 5 June 2006, he received the MOJO Merit Award at the Mojo Honours List ceremony, based on "an expanded career that still continues to be inspirational." The award was presented by Beth Orton and Roy Harper. Rolling Stone ranked Jansch as No. 94 on its list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time in 2003.
In January 2007, the five original members of Pentangle (including Jansch) were given a Lifetime Achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The award was presented by Sir David Attenborough. Producer John Leonard said "Pentangle were one of the most influential groups of the late 20th century and it would be wrong for the awards not to recognise what an impact they had on the music scene." Pentangle played together for the event, for the first time in more than two decades, and their performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesday, 7 February 2007. In 2007, Jansch was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by Edinburgh Napier University, "in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the UK music industry."

Music

Bert Jansch's musical influences included Big Bill Broonzy and Brownie McGhee, whom Jansch first saw playing at The Howff in 1960 and, much later, claimed that he'd "still be a gardener" if he hadn't encountered McGhee and his music. Jansch was also strongly influenced by the British folk music tradition, particularly by Anne Briggs and, to a lesser extent, A.L. Lloyd. Other influences included jazz (notably Charles Mingus), early music (John Renbourn and Julian Bream) and other contemporary singer-songwriters – especially Clive Palmer. The other major influence was Davey Graham who, himself, brought together an eclectic mixture of musical styles. Also, in his formative years, Jansch had busked his way through Europe to Morocco, picking up musical ideas and rhythms from many sources. From these influences, he distilled his own individual guitar style.
Some of his songs feature a basic Travis picking style of right-hand playing but these are often distinguished by unusual chord voicings or by chords with added notes. An example of this is his song "Needle of Death," which features a simple picking style, though several of the chords are decorated with added ninths. Characteristically, the ninths are not the highest note of the chord, but appear in the middle of the arpeggiated finger-picking, creating a "lumpiness" to the sound.
Another characteristic feature was his ability to hold a chord in the lower strings while bending an upper string—often bending up from a semitone below a chord note. These can be heard clearly on songs such as "Reynardine" where the bends are from the diminished fifth to the perfect fifth. Jansch often fitted the accompaniment to the natural rhythm of the words of his songs, rather than playing a consistent rhythm throughout. This can lead to occasional bars appearing in unusual time signatures. For example, his version of the Ewan MacColl song "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", unlike most other covers of that song, switches from 4/4 time to 3/4 and 5/4. A similar disregard for conventional time signatures is found in several of his collaborative compositions with Pentangle: for instance, "Light Flight" from the Basket of Light album includes sections in 5/8, 7/8 and 6/4 time.

Instruments

Through the development of Pentangle, Jansch played a number of instruments: banjo, Appalachian dulcimer, recorder and concertina—on rare occasions he has even been known to play electric guitar. However, it is his acoustic guitar playing that was most notable.
Jansch's first guitar was home-made from a kit but when he left school and started work, he bought a Höfner cello-style guitar. Soon he traded this in for a Zenith which was marketed as the "Lonnie Donegan guitar" and which Jansch played in the folk clubs in the early 1960s. His first album was reputedly recorded using a Martin 00028 borrowed from Martin Carthy. Pictures of Jansch in the middle 1960s show him playing a variety of models, including Martin and Epiphone guitars. He had a guitar hand-built by John Bailey, which was used for most of the Pentangle recordings but was eventually stolen.
Jansch later played two six-string guitars built by the Coventry-based luthier Rob Armstrong, one of which appears on the front and back covers of the 1980 Shanachie release, Best of Bert Jansch. He then had a contract with Yamaha, who provided him with an FG1500 which he played, along with a Yamaha LL11 1970s jumbo guitar. Jansch's relationship with Yamaha continued and they presented him with an acoustic guitar with gold trim and abalone inlay for his 60th birthday although, valued at about £3000, Jansch was quoted as saying that it is too good for stage use.

Influence

Jansch's music, and particularly his acoustic guitar playing, have influenced a range of well-known musicians. His first album (Bert Jansch, 1965) was much admired, with Jimmy Page saying, "At one point, I was absolutely obsessed with Bert Jansch. When I first heard that LP, I couldn't believe it. It was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing. No one in America could touch that." The same debut album included Jansch's version of the Davy Graham instrumental "Angie." This was a favourite of Mike Oldfield, who practised acoustic guitar alone as a child, and was then heavily influenced by Jansch's style. The title of the instrumental inspired Oldfield to call his first band (with sister Sally) The Sallyangie.
Jansch's version of "Angie" inspired Paul Simon's recording of the piece, which was retitled "Anji" and appeared on the Simon & Garfunkel album Sounds of Silence. From the same era, Neil Young is quoted as saying, "As much of a great guitar player as Jimi [Hendrix] was, Bert Jansch is the same thing for acoustic guitar...and my favourite." Nick Drake and Donovan were both admirers of Jansch: both recorded covers of his songs and Donovan went on to dedicate two of his own songs to Jansch; "Bert's Blues" appeared on his Sunshine Superman LP, and "House of Jansch" on his fourth album Mellow Yellow. Other tributes included Gordon Giltrap's album Janschology (2000) which has two tunes by Jansch, plus two others that show his influence.

AND

John Renbourn

John Renbourn (Marylebone, 8 agosto 1944 – Hawick, 26 marzo 2015) è stato un chitarrista e compositore britannico.
È considerato uno dei più grandi maestri della chitarra folk, influenzato dalla tradizione blues americana, dalla musica medievale, dalla musica classica e dal revival folk degli anni '70, ha creato un genere unico da cui diverse generazioni di chitarristi attingono continuamente. Conosciuto principalmente come membro dei Pentangle e per la sua collaborazione con Bert Jansch, ha avuto una grande carriera solista prima, durante e dopo l'esistenza della band. Pur essendo considerato uno dei maggiori chitarristi della sua epoca ha sempre avuto nei confronti della musica e della creatività un atteggiamento molto distante dalle patinature dello Star System, dimostrando negli anni una sincerità che gli viene riconosciuta dai fan di tutto il mondo.
È morto a 70 anni stroncato da un attacco cardiaco nella sua abitazione di Hawick, in Scozia.

Discografia

Album da solista

John Renbourn (1965)
Another Monday (1967)
Sir John Alot of Merry Englandes Musyk Thynge and ye Grene Knyghte (1968)
The Lady and the Unicorn (1970)
Faro Annie (1972)
So Clear (1973)
Heads and Tails (1973)
The Guitar of John Renbourn (1976, released 2005, aka The Guitar Artistry of John Renbourn)
The Hermit (1976)
The Black Balloon (1979)
One Morning Very Early (1979)
Enchanted Garden (1980)
The Nine Maidens (1986)
Shines Bright (1987)
Folk Blues of John Renbourn (1988)
Medieval Almanac (1989)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1995)
Lost Sessions (1996)
Traveller's Prayer (1998)
Palermo Snow (2011)

Album in gruppo

Con The John Renbourn Group

A Maid in Bedlam (1977)
The Enchanted Garden (1980)

Con Ship of Fools

Ship of Fools (1988)

Collaborazioni

With Dorris Henderson

There You Go (1965)
Watch the Stars (1967)

Con Stefan Grossman

Live In (1978)
John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman (1978) (*)
Under the Volcano (1979)
The Three Kingdoms (1986)
(* Selected tracks from John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman and from Under the Volcano were re-released under the title Keeper of the Vine (1982), and a different selection re-released under the title Snap a Little Owl (1997))

Con Bert Jansch

Bert and John (1966)
After The Dance (1992)

Con Bert Jansch and Conundrum

Thirteen Down (1979)

Compilation

The Essential Collection Vol 1: The Soho Years (1986)
The Essential Collection Vol 2: The Moon Shines Bright (1987)
Essential John Renbourn (1992)
Collection (1995)
Definitive Transatlantic Collection (1998)
Nobody's Fault But Mine: An Anthology

Album dal vivo

Live in America (1981) - The John Renbourn Group
Live ... In Concert (1984) - John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman
Wheel of Fortune (1993) - John Renbourn and Robin Williamson
Live In Italy (2006)

DVD

Rare Performances 1965 - 1995 (2004)
In Concert (2004)

John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence (1967–1973).
While most commonly labelled a folk musician, Renbourn's musical tastes and interests took in early music, classical music, jazz, blues and world music. His most influential album, Sir John Alot (1968), featured his take on tunes from the Medieval era.

Biography

John Renbourn studied classical guitar at school and it was during this period that he was introduced to Early Music. In the 1950s, along with many others, he was greatly influenced by the musical craze of "Skiffle" and this eventually led him to explore the work of artists such as Lead Belly, Josh White and Big Bill Broonzy.
In the 1960s the new craze in popular music was Rhythm and Blues, also the impact of Davey Graham was being felt. In 1961 Renbourn toured the South West with Mac MacLeod and repeated the tour in 1963. On returning from the South West Renbourn and MacLeod recorded a demo tape together. Renbourn briefly played in an R&B band while studying at the Kingston College of Art in London. Although the British "Folk Revival" was underway, most folk clubs were biased towards traditional, unaccompanied folk songs, and guitar players were not always welcome. However, the Roundhouse in London had a more tolerant attitude and here, John Renbourn joined blues and gospel singer Dorris Henderson, playing backing guitar and recording two albums with her.
Possibly the best known London venue for contemporary folk music in the early 1960s was "Les Cousins" on Greek Street, Soho, which became the main meeting place for guitar players and contemporary singer-songwriters from Britain and America. Around 1963, Renbourn teamed up with guitarist Bert Jansch who had moved to London from Edinburgh, and together they developed an intricate duet style that became known as "folk baroque". Their album Bert and John is a fine example of their playing.
Renbourn released several albums on the Transatlantic label during the 1960s. Two of them, Sir John Alot and Lady and the Unicorn, sum up Renbourn's playing style and material from this period. Sir John Alot has a mixture of jazz/blues/folk playing alongside a more classical/early music style. Lady and the Unicorn is heavily influenced by Renbourn's interest in early music.
At around this time, Renbourn also started playing and recording with Jacqui McShee who sang traditional English folk songs, and with American fiddler Sue Draheim. Together with Bert Jansch, bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox, they went on to form Pentangle. The group became very successful, touring America in 1968, playing at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Folk Festival.
Renbourn went on to record more solo albums in the 1970s and 1980s. Much of the music is based on traditional material with a Celtic influence, interwoven with other styles. He also collaborated with American guitarist Stefan Grossman in the late 1970s, recording two albums with him, which at times recall his folk baroque days with Bert Jansch.
In the mid-1980s Renbourn went back to the university to earn a degree in composition at Dartington College of Arts. Subsequently he focused mainly on writing classical music, while still performing in folk settings. He also added acoustic guitars for the movie soundtrack Scream for Help, a studio project with his neighbour John Paul Jones.
In 1988, Renbourn briefly formed a group called Ship of Fools with Tony Roberts (flute), Maggie Boyle (lyrics, misc. instruments) and Steve Tilston (guitar). They recorded one eponymous album together. After practising by mailing tapes to each other in England, they held their first concert, comprising two sold-out shows, at Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club Theater. Regrettably, the soundboard bootleg tape was not saved due to a dispute between the concert promoter and the audio engineer.
Renbourn continued to record and tour. He toured the USA with Archie Fisher. In 2005 he toured Japan (his fifth tour of that country) with Tokio Uchida and Woody Mann. In 2006 he played at number of venues in England, including the Green Man Festival in Wales and appearances with Robin Williamson and with Jacqui McShee. In the same year, he was working on a new solo album and collaborated with Clive Carroll on the score for the film Driving Lessons, directed by Jeremy Brock.
In 2011 he released Palermo Snow, a collection of instrumental guitar solos also featuring clarinetist Dick Lee. The title track is a complex mix of classical, folk, jazz and blues. This piece is a departure, in that there is a classical core, with other styles intermixing, rather than the core style being blues, folk or jazz.
Since 2012 he had toured with Wizz Jones, playing a mixture of solo and duo material. Renbourn previously appeared on Jones's album "Lucky the Man" (2001) with other former members of Pentangle. In 2016, an album by the pair, titled Joint Control, was released.
Renbourn died on 26 March 2015 from a heart attack at his home in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, aged 70.

Equipment

In Renbourn's early recordings, he was using a Scarth guitar. Scarths were English-made guitars, mainly used by dance-band players, having maple back and sides, arched top, and tailpiece (like most jazz guitars), but featuring a round soundhole. The guitar is clearly visible on the cover of the 1965 John Renbourn album.
In the mid-1960s, he acquired a Gibson J-50. This was the main acoustic guitar that he used through the late 1960s and early 1970s: for example, he is seen playing it in the cover picture of the 1966 Another Monday album. Through that period, he also used a Gibson ES-335 "dot", semi-acoustic guitar, playing it fingerstyle as well as for lead lines.
In the mid-1970s, Renbourn acquired a Guild D-55 which he used on several albums, including his collaborations with Stefan Grossman. Later in the 1970s, having seen the Franklin guitar owned by Grossman, he started using a Franklin OM guitar, based on the style of Martin OM guitars, made by Nick Kukich who founded the Franklin guitar company. Renbourn continued to use this guitar and another OM-style instrument, made by Ralph Bown of York, UK, in 1985. He also had a signature model guitar, no longer in production, from C. F. Martin & Company.

Bert Jansch - Angie - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqjUWJtH88c

John Renbourn - Transfusion - YouTube

Video relativi a john renbourn Transfusion

▶ 2:06

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlkRiKk15Kg

16 nov 2015 - Caricato da Gabriel

Sir John Alot.

Bert Jansch - Needle Of Death - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9C9tx-Bv3w

Lyrics

When sadness fills your heart
And sorrow hides the longing to be free
When things go wrong each day
You fix your mind to 'scape your misery
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
How strange, your happy words
Have ceased to bring a smile from everyone
How tears have filled the eyes
Of friends that you once had walked among
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
One grain of pure white snow
Dissolved in blood spread quickly to your brain
In peace your mind withdraws
Your death so near your soul can't feel no pain
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Your mother stands a'cryin'
While to the earth your body's slowly cast
Your father stands in silence
Caressing every young dream of the past
Your troubled young life
Had made you turn
To a needle of death
Through ages, man's desires
To free his mind, to release his very soul
Has proved to all who live
That death itself is freedom for evermore
And your troubled young life
Will make you turn
To a needle of death

John Renbourn-Lady Goes To Church - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIOT6rRK8Mk

Bert Jansch - Strolling Down the Highway - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMlLlwVk9eI

Lyrics

Strolling down the highway
I'm gonna get there my way
Dusk till dawn I'm walkin'
Can hear my guitar rocking?
While I stroll on down
On down the highway
People think, I'm a crazing
The Lord above ain't lazing
The sunshine's all day long
[Incomprehensible] far too strong
While I stroll on down
On down the highway
While I stroll on down
On down the highway
The cars won't stop for no one
They don't think that you're just rolling down
They think you're an OAS spy
Gonna shoot them as they go by
No cars, they won't stop
Won't stop for no one
Strolling down the highway
And I'm gonna get there my way
Dusk till dawn I'm walkin'
Can hear my guitar rocking?
While I stroll on down
On down the highway

John Renbourn - The Lady And The Unicorn (Full Album) - YouTube

Video relativi a john renbourn the lady and the unicorn

▶ 35:09

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzSQDuMI7WE

26 dic 2012 - Caricato da atravesdelrio

01. Trotto / Saltarello 02. Lamento Di Tristan / La Rotta 03. Veri Floris / Triple Ballade 04. Bransle Gay ...

Bert Jansch-Courting Blues - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC5l-vBImq4

Lyrics

Green are your eyes
In the morning, when you arise
Don't you be afraid to lie
By me, my love
Your father will not know
Love can be broken
Though no words are spoken
Don't you be afraid to lie
By me, my love
Your father will not know
Love be bold
We're not so old
Don't you be afraid to lie
By me, my love
Your father will not know
Love don't cry
I'll not try
Don't you be afraid to lie
By me, my love
Your father will not know
Green are your eyes
In the morning, when you rise
Don't you be afraid to lie
By me, my love
Your father will be told someday
About our wedding day