The Apprentice

Product Information

Review: Grace & Danger, A Celebration of John Martyn, Celtic Connections 2019". The Fountain. 1 February 2019 . Retrieved 25 June 2020. From the age of sixteen through to nineteen he played his first gigs with jazz funk bands including Marie Murphy’s Latin Jazz Quartet. Also in this period he met Spencer Cozens and Dominic Miller who became lifelong friends. From 1986 he began playing on sessions with Dominic Miller including a tune he had written on the Nigel Kennedy album “Let Loose”, also sessions with Mike McEvory (producer/composer). As if to continue the film theme John has long admired the American actor and bass baritone Paul Robeson and The River is inspired by Robeson’s acclaimed performance of Ol’ Man River in the 1936 film version of Show Boat. Martyn, John [real name Ian David McGeachy] (1948–2009), musician and songwriter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/100767. ISBN 978-0-19-861411-1. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

In the late 1980s, Martyn cited Grace and Danger as his favourite album, and said that it was "probably the most specific piece of autobiography I've written. Some people keep diaries, I make records." [17] The album has since become one of his highest-regarded, prompting a deluxe double-disc issue in 2007, containing the original album remastered. To mark Martyn's 60th birthday, Island released a 4 CD boxed set, Ain't No Saint, on 1 September 2008. The set includes unreleased studio material and rare live recordings. The first thing to comment upon, as I popped in the first disc to play, is quite the reasoning behind Island’s rejection. It seems they had high hopes for cross-over, seeking to manufacture a worldwide star from this never more idiosyncratic performer. (Chris Rea being their template!) Given stardom usually necessitates conformity and standardisation, I can certainly see how that may have sat with Martyn. Now I haven’t, maybe I should, listened to the Island tapes, given they are available via the 2013 UA release of The Island Years, but these songs, as presented here, seem astonishingly commercial. That is, in the 1980s sense of the word, full of the tropes of the era, gated drums, shimmery synthesisers and lots of echo, and, of all people, the sound feels most akin to Stevie Winwood’s work of a similar vintage, when perhaps Island were seeking a star of him, then duly delivered. At the moment I am having lots of fun writing music with Spencer and friends and am looking forward to this tour with John.” As a child he started with the clarinet, but soon changed to percussion. “My path as a percussionist was set when I was given three congas from close family friend Dizzy Gillespie, together with strong words ‘Go for it’ from the wonderful and greatly missed Gil Evans. I went for it.”

Tracklist

If 1990s The Apprentice was a landmark for John Martyn, it was primarily because Island Records’ rejection of it even after he had re-recorded it at his own expense marked the end of his two-decade tenure at the label. With hindsight, it’s hard to fathom why they passed on a record later seen as a return to form after some decidedly uneven 80s output, but John Hillarby’s liner notes for this three CD plus DVD clamshell box reissues are revealing. Apparently,the label had designs on re-styling Martyn as the next Chris Rea – a fool’s errand, really, given his notorious recalcitrance and reputation as a stylistic moving target. As well as signalling John Martyn’s return to the fray, The Apprentice marks the end of a lengthy association with Island Records. Yet neither break seems to have done him any harm. He is now what he’s always been: a master of his craft, a class act. That’s rare indeed.**** Martyn died on 29 January 2009, at a hospital in Thomastown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, [30] from acute respiratory distress syndrome. He had been living in Thomastown with his partner Theresa Walsh. Martyn's health was affected by his life-long abuse of drugs and alcohol. He was survived by his partner and his children, Mhairi, Wesley and Spencer McGeachy. [31] Tributes [ edit ]

After the iconoclasm of “Inside Out” which critics referred to as ‘A cosmic foray’ and ‘Music from inner space’ and which won Martyn a golden disc from Montreux, “Sunday’s Child”, released in January 1975, marked a return to the conventional song format, producing songs of considerable contrasts from the down home boogie of ‘Clutches,’ (owing more than a passing nod to Little Feat’s Lowell George), to the traditional folk of ‘Spencer The Rover.’ The overall feel of the album is one of contentment and Martyn called it “The Family Album, very happy, purely romantic… A nice period,” an impression borne out by ‘My Baby Girl’, which featured Beverley on vocals for the last time. The only child of two singers who separated shortly after his birth in 1948, Martyn was raised by his grandmother and his father in urban Glasgow, spending his annual holidays touring the waterways of Southern England with his mother. Striving to be ‘different and Bohemian’, the adolescent Martyn took up the guitar, and was noticed by Hamish Imlach, who taught him much and showed him the possibilities of combining traditional and modern approaches to music whilst sounding contemporary. It’s a sparse setting for this deleted concert from 1990, recorded at London’s The Shaw Theatre, as part of the tour for The Apprentice album he released that year. Deny This Love" (remix) / "The Apprentice" (live) / "Deny This Love" (album version) (Permanent CD Perm 1, August 1990) By 1970 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! released in February 1970.Depending on when John Martyn’s music entered your life, that’s likely the period that means the most to you. With the various BBC music compilations that litter sundry TV stations nowadays, I’d say there’s a fair few that know him solely for Old Grey Whistle Test appearances, armed with echoplex and acoustic (sometimes Danny Thompson on double bass), blasting out what were already progressive folk classics. For me, it was the late ‘70s when they played ‘Dancing’ on Radio 1, for my mate Gary and I it foretold the life we perceived waiting for us on leaving school and pretending to be all grown-up. Live in Dublin (with Danny Thompson at Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, for RTE TV, Ireland, June 1986) (February 2005) Here he tells us what he has to sing about; like a coyly played game, he is an excited man-child trying to rein in his enthusiasm. “Look at me now, I don’t need no money at all – I’m in love”, he tells as sleek guitar lines run through. Life is going well and the chorus bumps along in celebratory rejoice with a semi-tribal world music feel, but essentially it’s all a warm up for to next number. Easing in with acoustic numbers it takes a wee while for it to all come together, the addition of full band, then guest artist etc. ‘May You Never’ feels too early in the set, and a little rushed, but big heavy numbers like ‘Dealer’, ‘Big Muff’, ‘Johnny Too Bad’ and even ‘John Wayne’ have an unexpected sense of presence about them that other listeners will hopefully find as rewarding as I did. Where, previously, the angry guttural howls of songs ‘Big Muff’ implied what they were about here I appreciate what the clearer words are actually about. Similarly, as the songs progress across the two records, the improvisations stretch out, with some evocative arrangements. Live in Concert (John Martyn & Band at Camden Palace Theatre, London, 23 November 1984) (2001) (DVD release of 1986 Live from London; re-issued Live at the Camden Palace Theatre London 1984 (2004) & Live from the Camden Palace (2012))

UK | Scotland | Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West | Songwriter Martyn dies, aged 60". BBC News. 29 January 2009 . Retrieved 16 August 2015.

Notes

Mike Harding introduced an hour-long tribute to Martyn in his BBC Radio 2 programme on 25 February 2009. A tribute album, Johnny Boy Would Love This, was released on 15 August 2011, comprising cover versions of his songs by various artists. [18] [34] The wild man of folk dies aged 60". The Independent. 30 January 2009. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022 . Retrieved 9 July 2020.

Martyn now played electric guitar almost exclusively and his acoustic guitar and echoplex only featured in a small selection of his stage show, something a lot of fans took some getting used to. It was a conscious decision: “I didn’t want to be just another geezer playing with a repeat echo, so I had to change.” Angeline" / "Tight Connection to My Heart" / "May You Never" / "Certain Surprise" / "One Day Without You" (Island 12 IS 265, February 1986) This remastered CD and DVD collection features the man and his music following the period I had stopped listening to him. It’s an incredibly weird feeling, almost like stalking an old lover on Facebook and seeing the subtle changes since what last you met, or so I will assume.

Following Martyn's death, Rolling Stone lauded his " progressive folk invention and improvising sorcery". [32] Friend and collaborator Phil Collins paid tribute to him, saying, "John's passing is terribly, terribly sad. I had worked with and known him since the late 1970s and he was a great friend. He was uncompromising, which made him infuriating to some people, but he was unique and we'll never see the likes of him again. I loved him dearly and will miss him very much." [33]