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John Renbourn, R.I.P.


mjzee

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Pentangle, the first jazz folk fusion band? (Danny Thompson continued this later with his Whatever group). Certainly Pentangle pre-dated Fairport Convention for "plugged in" folk! Renbourn and Jansch (also sadly passed on prematurely) were stellar guitarists and they in turn had carried on something of a jazz-blues-folk tradition from (also sadly gone before his time) Davy Graham. Folk wasn't always finger-in-the-ear stuff (not that there's anything wrong with that either!). RIP John.

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Yes, great player. Some fine later solo albums too. This one from 1980 is superb:

412JOxEJfnL._SS280.jpg

...especially the long Eastern-influence "Sidi Brahim".

Pentangle were expiring when I first got interested in folky stuff and I've never been completely convinced. But there's lots of wonderful music there and Renbourn was a key part of that. Don't think I ever saw him live.

RIP

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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Yes, great player. Some fine later solo albums too. This one from 1980 is superb:

412JOxEJfnL._SS280.jpg

...especially the long Eastern-influence "Sidi Brahim".

Pentangle were expiring when I first got interested in folky stuff and I've never been completely convinced. But there's lots of wonderful music there and Renbourn was a key part of that. Don't think I ever saw him live.

RIP

Bev, thank you. That is one of the most marvellous tracks I've heard for a very long time

RIP indeed

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R.I.P., and many thanks for the music. Now the two founding figures of Pentangle, Bert Jansch and now John Renbourn have passed ... I loved the music of this band which to this day is the epitome of a successful fusion of folk and jazz, at least for me. Pentangle was a dream band and the ideal for at least two of the bands I played in. I remember searching for and buying all of the band's LPs and many of Renbourn's and Jansch's LPs.

I remember getting to meet him in person some time after the band split up, when he was doing concerts with Jacqui McShee as a duo - a friend of mine who was involved in a local folk club managed to get them to play in a very small town not far away, and we had a glass of wine with the two afterwards. As it turned out my friend and John talked about guitar tunings an fingerings all the time, so I had a nice conversation about the Pentangle with Jacqui, which was not such a bad thing. Both were very nice and natural people, meeting them is one of my nicest memories from my student years.

Farewell John, and lots of heavenly music ...


As things go I managed to find a source for my favourite brand of wine from these years just last week, so I raise my glass to you and wish you well.

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John was a great goddamn musician-- he could even make you think Stefan Grossman was soulful, which he assuredly is not.

check out John's home page & the collage of inspiration he posted; gives good measure of the depths-- inc. much blues & a heavy dose of American Beat-- he was drawing from.

http://www.johnrenbourn.co.uk/inspirers/

as noted elsewhere, live John would do a fine version "Buckets of Rain," the only tolerable song from callow, insipid "Blood On The Tracks" and then wash it down with Randy Weston "Little Niles."

etc etc

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Interesting to read Renbourn's comment on the above (or the original version - that one has a few more tracks) in the Guardian article linked a few posts back:

“I find it hilarious that [bert and John] has since been revered as milestone,” John told me in 2007. “All we ever did was play things that were semi-worked out and made up on the spot. We just played back what we had and gave them titles afterwards.”

A victory for spontaneity?

Edited by A Lark Ascending
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