09 Jan 2021
This poster reminded me of the fun people used to have at the John Martyn gatherings in the North. After one year of isolation and cancellations, it really feels like we are missing something here. My wife and I have excellent memories of the Januari meetings in the Clutha and we were planning to come to Yorkshire in June. But all that went under in the corona waves and subsequent lockdowns.
We had come, most of us, to pay homage to and enjoy the results of a 26-year career, spanning 21 albums.
John is filmed and interviewed during the recording of Sapphire, at Compass Point studios, Nassau, Bahamas
"The first one's for you," John Martyn told the capacity audience at Her Majesty's Theatre on Tuesday as he ripped into a song which has become almost his signature tune, May You Never.
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.
A 'definitively English' singer/ songwriter does not always have an easy time of it in the States.
If names like Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Everything But The Girl, ABC and Julian Cope conjure up the vision of some kind of Status-toting hotshot somewhere in his mid-twenties, think again. Danny Thompson began as a tea-chest player in a skiffle band, with Leadbelly and Big Bill Broonzy among his earliest influences. He moved on to play with the biggest names in British jazz in the late '50s and mid-'60s -Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott- then joined Alexis Korner's enormously influential Blues Incorporated. He backed blues giants like Little Walter, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Terry, and rounded off the decade by becoming a vital part of the folk-rock movement; that was Pentangle, of course, who subsequently made six albums in their seven-year lifespan.
| 11th September 1948: Born Iain David McGeachy in New Malden, Surrey | ||
| 1966: Relocates from Glasgow to London | ||
In September 2010 Glaswegian Jim McKnight is planning a trip to his brother's safari lodge at Loskop Dam near Johannesburg. British musician John Martyn was a close friend of his, and was to have accompanied him on the trip but sadly never got to explore the country whose music he had come to love, and now Jim is preparing to take both John's as well as his cousin's ashes to scatter on African soil.
"It felt natural", says John at the beginning of Fine Lines. John described Inside Out, released in October 1973, as "everything I ever wanted to do in music... it's my inside coming out." The free-form jazz orientated experimental album features sublime guitar work by John and superbly varied bass playing from Danny Thompson. Traffic's Steve Winwood (keyboards) and Chris Wood (sax) also contribute, as do Remi Kabaka (percussion) and others. The intensive recording sessions took place over a few days and were largely late at night with no cutting, editing or splicing. It was "live" and tracks were faded out where necessary. The album won John a Golden Disc from Montreaux and received glowing reviews from the music press who described it as 'music from inner space' and a 'cosmic foray.'
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.
Pop and Jazz in Review
By JON PARELES
"Toen ik in 1967 met platen maken begon, dacht ik de mensheid even hardhandig met de neus op de feiten te kunnen drukken. Ik spiegelde me vooral aan Robert Johnson en andere blueszangers die de kop in de wind gooiden. Ik tegen de rest van de wereld. Dat werk."
Another individualist, singer and songwriter who has been around for years but still turns in intriguing and very different albums.
AN EERIE presence of nocturnal energy filled Island's No. 2 studio - an energy that had probably found its peak around 3 a.m. but which was beginning to wane as the sun came up over the Westway.
