01 Nov 2008
Prompted by the release of a career-retrospective boxed set, Johnny Black talks four decades' music making with John Martyn
John is filmed and interviewed during the recording of Sapphire, at Compass Point studios, Nassau, Bahamas
After devoting many years to folkiedom and a certain amount of inevitable navel gazing, John Martyn found out he'd rather spend more time searching out the fret board of his electric guitar and less gawking at his soul.
01 Aug 1979
Welcome… at last, to Northern Ireland's first major folk festival!
01 Dec 1977
I once saw a girl absolutely cream some poor bastard with a John Martyn record. He'd whispered some lewd suggestion in her ear and she just whipped around and gave him a tremendous shot in the temple with a copy of So Far So Good.
The whole affair actually began, to my sudden surprise, at 7:30 pm Sunday when John Martyn stepped on stage.
A large contingent of the audience at tonight's secret gig in a north London student hall are clearly less than familiar with JOHN MARTYN - both the music and the man.
In de jaren zestig begonnen als folksolist, maar inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een schepper van sfeervolle klankbeelden, waarbij zijn aparte gitaargeluid en zand opvallen: dat is John Martyn. Morgenavond speelt hij, met begeleidingsgroep, in Zalen Schaaf in Leeuwarden.
I SAW John Martyn on Sight And Sound In Concert1 and was amazed at the sounds he got from his acoustic guitar. What did he use to achieve these effects? If he used a special gadget, how does it work? – Neil Sutherland, Finchley, London N12.
Chris Blackwell was always a bit of a rebel. Born in London, raised in Jamaica, he was schooled at Harrow but scorned its uniform - especially the straw boater pupils were obliged to don.
TD: It's 1966. Harold Wilson is prime minister, Lyndon Johnson is president. It's the year of Carnaby Street and Vietnam. In music, Mersey beat and the Modern rockers are on the way out; acid rock and hippies are just around the corner. And in Glasgow, a 17-year old Scottish folksinger is about to make his first live appearance.
John Martyn, how much can you remember about those very early gigs.
JM: The very early ones... I remember the first time I ever played in public. That was in the local village hall, the Town Hall, partial as burro. That was because Josh McCrae got drunk in the pub and could not appear. So I was given the gig, because I was the only one in the audience who could play the guitar and sing. And about four months after that I played in a place called The Black Bull in Dollar which is outside Stirling. I got eleven quid for it, that was wonderful.
TD: How much do you think you have changed.
Although he had originally begun his career as one of a wave of new British -mostly Scottish- folk singers in the late '60s, John Martyn was quick to test the boundaries of his chosen genre. A period spent working in Woodstock with such as The Band's drummer Levon Helm opened the young folkie's ears to the possibilities of folk-rock, and an interest in the work of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders led him towards introducing jazz elements into his own work.
John and Danny go back a long, long way to the late 1960s. I asked Danny how they came to meet, "I met John out in Newport Folk Festival (Rhode Island in the USA) when I was with Pentangle, and he said do you fancy getting together?"
SS:- What sort of things have influenced you?
JM:- Alcohol, drugs, everyday life and all the music I've ever heard. I don't have any major influences at the moment. I can tell you the records I listen to more than any others, Alice Coltrane1 mostly. If I want to dance and get drunk I listen to Tamla [Motown records] and I listen to Stevie Wonder if I want to bop about and get nicely stoned; I feel most comfortable, most harmonious, must musical with Alice Coltrane, that's really the one that's on all the time. My desert island disc. And also Leon Thomas' record, the one with Wayne Shorter.... oh, and Weather Report are the best band in the world. Just exceptional.
Vous a-t-on dit que le dernier (et quatorzième) album de John Martyn, «Sapphire», était une splendeur ? Oui, on vous l'a dit. Mais vous a-t-on dit que, de temps en temps, John Martyn sortait de sa campagne écossaise et de sa réserve pour parler à «R&F»? Voici donc.
R&F - Souvent quand on rencontre un artiste, il vous dit que son dernier disque est ce qu'il a fait de mieux. Dans votre cas, ce ne serait pas entièrement faux.
John
Martyn
Often as not, early days are unrevealing, and with The Tumbler (1968) it's not immediately obvious that John Martyn would subsequently take an odd electrical path.
