Collectors Items. Two notes. Strong band. Soft rock with Koss doodling. Released to overwhelming critical acclaim, One World was hailed a classic album. Incredibly, John Martyn was only sixty years old. He seemed to have been around forever. Back …. The final category in my best of series is live albums. For some reason, live albums seem to divide opinion.
While some people love live albums, others loathe them. There seems to be no middle ground. It may be …. It had the potential to breath life into both albums. Listeners were able to see whether that was the case …. This …. Familiar faces and new names sit side-by-side in my list of the best Scottish albums of These …. Dark Entries. David Bowie.
David Byrne. Deep Dive. Deep Listening. Delia Derbyshire. Dennis Bovell. Diasporic Disco. Dick Verdult. Diggin in the Mags. Don Buchla. Don Cherry. Donald Byrd. Doom Metal. Dream House. Dream Pop. Drum Break. Drum Machine. Drum n Bass.
Dub Poetry. Durutti Column. Earl King. Early Electronic. East African. Electric Lady. Elegant Pop. Environmental Music. Eric Dolphy. ESP Institute. Essential Listen. Essential Listening. Essential Listenning. Ethiopian Jazz. Factory Records. Fela Kuti. Field recording. Fishing with John. Fleetwood Sound Company.
Floating Points. Fourth World. Free Improvisation. Free Jazz. Friends of ISC. Gal Costa. Garage Rock. Gems from the Dollar Bin. George Martin. Gilberto Gil. Graphic Novel. Grateful Dead. Group Sounds. Hard Bop. Harold Budd. Harry Nilsson. Haruomi Hosono.
Heavy Metal. Henry Lewy. Herbie Hancock. Hidden Gem. Hiroshi Yoshimura. Holger Czukay. Holy Grail. Home Listening. In Conversation. Indian Classical.
Indie Rock. Ingmar Bergman. ISC Classic. ISC Collection. ISC Record Store. ISC Selects. Island Records. Italo Disco. Jackie McLean. James Baldwin. John Fahey. John Martyn. Jon Hassell. Joni Mitchell. Judee Sill. Kankyo Ongaku. Keith Haring. Keith Jarrett. Kitty Records. Klaus Schulze. La Monte Young. Labels We Love.
Lagniappe Sessions. Larry Levan. Last Resort. Latin Jazz. Laurel Canyon. Laurie Spiegel. Leaving Records. Lee Scratch Perry. It also seemed to garner interest in Martyn's sagging career. Glorious Fool, a superb effort, produced by Collins and featuring Eric Clapton on guitar and Collins on drums, piano, and vocals, looked to be his best shot at mainstream success, but failed to extend his cult status. Martyn released his second independent live record, the magnificent Philentropy, before returning to Island Records for two studio releases, a live album and a 12" single which featured a version of Bob Dylan's "Tight Connection to My Heart.
Continuing to battle his alcoholism, Martyn resumed his career in with The Apprentice and 's Cooltide. He also released an album of his classic songs re-recorded with an all-star cast featuring Phil Collins, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, and Levon Helm of the Band, as well as various compilations and live recordings. After a four-year layoff, Martyn issued And, an album with strong jazz, trip-hop, and funk overtones, followed in by The Church with One Bell, a collection of diverse covers.
Martyn recorded a surprise studio comeback effort called Glasgow Walker at the turn of the century that was very well received, and had his entire Island catalog remastered and reissued — two of his albums, One World, and Grace and Danger, were given the Universal "deluxe" treatment with bonus discs.
In , a cyst burst in Martyn's leg due to septicemia brought on by diabetes. The end result was an amputation, but he continued to tour the world with the same tireless energy and restlessness, performing with his band from a wheelchair. Martyn, shrugged it all off, typified by this infamous quote: " "I've been mugged in New York and luckily I fought my way out of it. I've been shot a couple of times as well but I just lay down and pretended to be dead.
Martyn's health, however, was in real decline as a result of a lifetime of substance abuse issues; in the early morning hours of January 29, , he passed away at the age of 60 after a third bout with pneumonia.
With his characteristic backslap acoustic guitar playing, his effects-driven experimental journeys, or his catalog of excellent songs, as well as his jazz-inflected singing style, John Martyn will remain an important and influential figure in both British folk and rock.
Over a forty-year career he released twenty studio albums and worked with artists such as Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, and Phil Collins. He has been described as "an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues".
Martyn was born in New Malden, Surrey, England. Martyn's parents, both opera singers, divorced when he was five and he spent his childhood alternating between England and Scotland.
Much of this was spent in the care of his grandmother. His strongest ties were in Glasgow, and he attended Shawlands Academy there. Mentored by Hamish Imlach, Martyn began his professional musical career when he was seventeen, playing a blend of blues and folk that resulted in a unique style that made him a key figure in the London folk scene during the mids.
He signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records in and released his first album, London Conversation, the following year. This first album was soon followed by The Tumbler, which was moving towards jazz.
By Martyn had developed a wholly original and idiosyncratic sound: acoustic guitar run through a fuzzbox, phase-shifter, and Echoplex. This sound was first apparent on Stormbringer! She was also jointly credited on The Road to Ruin, their next album in However, Island Records felt that it would be more successful to market Martyn as a solo act and this was how subsequent albums were produced, although Beverley Martyn continued to make appearances as a background singer.
In , Martyn released one of the defining British albums of the s, Solid Air, the title song a tribute to the singer-songwriter Nick Drake, a close friend and label-mate, who in died suddenly from an overdose of antidepressants. On this album, as with the one that preceded it, Bless the Weather, Martyn collaborated with jazz bass player, Danny Thompson, with whom he proceeded to have a fruitful musical partnership which continued until his death.
He also developed a new, slurred vocal style, the timbre of which resembled a tenor saxophone. Following the commercial success of Solid Air, Martyn quickly recorded and released the experimental Inside Out, a more difficult album with emphasis placed on feel and improvisation rather than song structure. In , he followed this with Sunday's Child. In September of the next year he released a live album, Live at Leeds—Martyn had been unable to convince Island to release the record, and resorted to selling individually signed copies by mail from his home.
Live at Leeds features Danny Thompson and drummer John Stevens, and is notable not only for the performances given, but the recording quality and incredibly quiet audience for a live recording.
After releasing Live at Leeds, Martyn took a sabbatical, including a visit to Jamaica, spending time with famous reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry. One World is notable for having been recorded outside, the album's lush soundscapes are partly the result of microphones picking up ambient sounds, such as water from a nearby lake.
Martyn's marriage to Beverley finally broke down at the end of the s and, according to his official website, "John hit the self destruct button" although other biographers, including The Times obituary writer, attribute the break-up of his marriage to his already being addicted to drink and drugs.
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