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As much of a great guitar player as Jimi (Hendrix) was, Bert Jansch is the same thing for acoustic guitar…and my favourite.
Neil Young
He revolutionised the guitar…I don’t think anybody has ever been revered as much as he is.
Dick Gaughan
At one point, I was absolutely obsessed with Bert Jansch. When I first heard that LP [1965], I couldn’t believe it. It was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing. No one in America could touch that.
Jimmy Page
Bert Jansch’s ground-breaking guitar playing, deeply affecting songwriting and dark, passionate voice have held audiences spellbound since the mid-sixties. Famously admired by Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Nick Drake and others, more recently young luminaries such as Noel Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker, Bernard Butler and Johnny Marr have paid homage to this unassuming but intensely revered master.
Bert began performing his unique synthesis of folk, blues and jazz on the folk club scene of the early sixties, having hitch-hiked to London from his hometown of Edinburgh. The Marquee, The 100 Club and famous folk den Les Cousins in Soho were amongst the venues that played host to Bert’s talent. His first album, Bert Jansch – played on a borrowed guitar and recorded on a reel-to-reel tape deck in someone’s apartment – was legendarily sold to the Transatlantic label for £100. On its release in April 1965, Bert Jansch caused an absolute sensation for its innovative guitar technique and powerful songs. Phenomenally influential, it still sells today, some thirty-seven years on, and is cited by legions of guitar players (famous and otherwise), as a major influence.
Bert Jansch was followed by It Don’t Bother Me, and the also enormously influential Jack Orion. On this album, Bert was already exploring innovative treatments of the traditional folk ballad form, something he took further with Pentangle, the band he formed with John Renbourn, Jacqui McShee, Terry Cox and Danny Thompson. Pentangle made six albums and enjoyed an unprecedented degree of success for an acoustic band, even making the singles chart with ‘Light Flight’ - the theme from the BBC drama series, ‘Take Three Girls’. They toured the world extensively, headlining shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Carnegie Hall and the Filmore East in New York and the Filmore West in San Francisco.
After Pentangle split in 1973, Bert returned to his solo career. Currently working on his 22nd studio album, Bert is still as active, innovative and influential as ever. His last album, Crimson Moon, was released in June 2000 to a torrent of major press and TV attention. The album featured contributions from long-time Jansch fans Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler, and was also accompanied by a Channel 4 documentary about Bert and his music (featuring appearances by Marr, Butler and more) and the publication by Bloomsbury of Colin Harper’s excellent biography of Bert, Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival. A double CD tribute album, People On The Highway: a Bert Jansch Encomium, was also released in 2000, featuring many of Bert’s songs specially recorded by other artists.
Since then, interest in Bert has not waned. In February 2001 he was awarded a BBC Radio 2 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Radio 2 Folk Awards in London. Bert’s record company, Sanctuary, have also been re-releasing much of his back catalogue, digitally remastered, some with extra tracks, and fabulously re-packaged, with classy slip-cases featuring facsimiles of the original packaging, and glossy booklets incorporating photos, lyrics and brand new informative sleevenotes. Bert’s new album, due out in September 2002, is eagerly awaited.
In a live setting, Bert’s performances are still a rare opportunity to see one of the British music scene’s true legends play. He eschews hollow show business routines for an understated, low key approach that accentuates the timeless brilliance of his songs. In turn, the audience is treated to a guitar playing master class and an impressive catalogue of some of the most emotive and haunting songs in the British canon.
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