John Martyn

This article deals with the British musician; for the botanist of the same name, see John Martyn (botanist) .

John Martyn in Bristol (1978)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

One World   UK 54 02/04/1978 (1 week) Grace and Danger   UK 54 11/01/1980 (2 weeks) Glorious Fool   UK 25th 09/26/1981 (7 weeks) Well Kept Secret   UK 20th 09/04/1982 (6 weeks) Sapphire   UK 57 11/17/1984 (2 weeks) Piece by piece   UK 28 03/08/1986 (4 weeks) Couldn't Love You More   UK 65 10/10/1992 (2 weeks) And.   UK 32 08/10/1986 (3 weeks) The Church With One Bell   UK 51 04/04/1998 (2 weeks) Glasgow Walker   UK 66 06/03/2000 (1 week) On the Cobbles   UK 95 05/08/2004 (1 week) Solid Air   UK 88  gold 02/28/2009 (1 week) The very best of   UK 65 04/04/2009 (2 weeks) Heaven and Earth   UK 51 05/28/2011 (1 week) The Island Years   UK 62 October 19, 2013 (1 week)

Singles

Deliver Me (Sister Bliss feat. John Martyn)   UK 31 03/24/2001 (2 weeks)

John Martyn in London (2008)

John Martyn OBE (born September 11, 1948 as Ian David McGeachy in New Malden , (then) Surrey (now part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames , London ), † January 29, 2009 in Thomastown, County Kilkenny , Ireland ) was a British musician . In his music he combined different styles into a new whole, he was "an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk , jazz , rock and blues ."

youth

John Martyn, an only child, spent his early childhood in London. Martyn's parents, both opera singers, divorced when he was five and he moved to live with his grandmother in Glasgow . He started playing guitar at the age of 15 , initially under the guidance of Hamish Imlach , a traditional Scottish singer, on whose shows he appeared as a guest musician. At 17 he began performing solo in Scotland, and a year later he moved to London, where he performed in folk clubs.

Early career

In 1967 Martyn got a contract with Island Records and made his first record London Conversation , his second record The Tumbler from 1968 was produced by Al Stewart . His music at the time was very much influenced by Davey Graham , who played a mix of jazz, folk, blues and various other musical styles. However, he became increasingly involved with Irish and Indian music as well as with the late John Coltrane and began with experiments on the electric guitar .

In 1969 he met the singer Beverly Kutner , who married. They performed together and recorded their first joint record in 1970, Stormbringer . Martyn was still looking for his own guitar style and introduced the Echoplex on Stormbringer , an analog delay that became a trademark of his music, especially in the 1970s. Martyn adopted Wesley, Beverly's two-year-old son, and their daughter Mhairi was born in 1971.

With the release of their second album The Road to Ruin in 1970, it became clear that their musical goals did not match. John wasn't satisfied with conventional music and was looking for a freer style away from the mainstream .

The 1970s

His next solo album, Bless The Weather from 1971, was recorded in the studio in three days. Many of the songs show Martyn's typical way of playing, combining percussive playing elements and plucking techniques of the acoustic guitar with vocals that are more like an instrument than a voice. On this album, the double bass player Danny Thompson played for the first time with Martyn, who would accompany him again and again throughout his career. Martyn experimented with tape loops on this album , an effect that he continued to use for a long time.

"Solid Air", 1978

The 1973 album Solid Air continued the course it had begun, although the overall mood was darker than that of the previous album. The song Solid Air , which was dedicated to his friend Nick Drake , who died shortly afterwards, is typical for this mood . A counterpoint to this mood is May You Never , which later by Eric Clapton on his album Slowhand gecovert was. Together with Bless the Weather , Solid Air is considered Martyn's masterpiece.

With the next album, Inside Out from 1973, Martyn began to leave the previous line of beautiful melodies and sounds. His music grew angrier and rougher, and his voice was increasingly used as an instrument. Martyn justified this change with the fact that he was actually not that nice person, and consciously turned away from the image of the "nice boy": "I'm not really that nice, and I very consciously turned away from all that." He continued increasingly using effects devices along with his steel string guitar, alternating between solo performances and playing with Danny Thompson. In 1974 he recorded the album Sunday's Child , released in 1975 , after which there was three years of silence regarding releases.

During this time, he toured a lot, trying to get a self-produced live album from home that was not accepted by Island Records. In 1976 he took a break, among other things, to cure his increasing alcohol and drug problems and spent four months in Jamaica . On his return in 1977 he released the album One World , an almost minimalist, jazzy album on which his voice was once more used as an instrument rather than vocals and on which Steve Winwood took part. The music on this album took a step back on the not so rough and angry side, a development that he reversed completely with his 1980 album Grace and Danger . The album was the processing of his painful divorce from Beverly, an angry reflection of coming to terms with the breakup. The song Sweet Little Mystery stands out from this dark mood , a light, catchy song that ties in with the mood of the two albums Bless The Weather and Solid Air . Phil Collins , who also separated from his wife at this time, worked on the album. Martyn began to drink heavily again: "You name it, I soaked myself in it ... it was a dark period in my life." Martyn rarely played acoustic guitar anymore, but almost exclusively electric, which annoyed many of his long-serving fans.

1980 to 1990

Collins produced Martyn, who left Island Records in 1980 for a contract with Warner Brothers . They released the album Glorious Fool in 1981 , on which Collins again played drums and Eric Clapton played guitar in a song. The album was quite successful commercially, reaching number 25 in the charts . The following 1982 album Well Kept Secret was very pop- oriented and again very successful (Top 20).

Martyn moved to Scotland and married Annie Furlong. In 1983 he released the live album Philentrophy on his own music label Body Swerve - at the time without a record deal - which was recorded on a number of gigs in 1982 and 1983 and captured the characteristic playing and singing of John Martyn. The production of the album Sapphire , released the next year, was very difficult due to misunderstandings between Martyn and the producer.

In the next few years some compilations from Island Records appeared, with which Martyn was again under contract, and in 1986 the album Piece by Piece , on which he again experimented with the use of his voice. His next album, Foundations , which was released in 1987 and recorded live , showed Martyn more of the old style by revising some of his older favorites such as May You Never in addition to three new songs .

1990 to 2000

After his draft for a new album was rejected by Island Records in 1988, he left the label and signed a contract with Permanent Records after two years with a series of appearances . The Apprentice appeared here in 1990 . In addition to the usual use of the electric guitar, the use of synthesizers and excursions into the disco beat , in the piece Patterns in the Rain he returned to the acoustic guitar after a long time. On the next album, Cooltide, from 1991, he largely renounced the use of synthesizers. In 1992, BBC Radio 1 was released Live in Concert , a live recording of a concert in Glastonbury from 1986. The album received good reviews, it showed Martyn's skills as an excellent guitarist and his confident handling of effects devices.

In the same year, Permanent Records, against Martyn's wishes, released the album Couldn't Love You More , which Martyn described as overproduced, and which he countered the next year with the album No Little Boy - with the same titles, but entirely under the direction produced by Martyn. As a result of the related dispute, Martyn left the label.

Several other compilations appeared over the next few years - including the Island Anthology from 1994, which covers a large part of his career - and live recordings, in which, among others, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd took part. Martyn struggled with his health, the death of his wife Annie and other problems, so it wasn't until 1996 that he released his next album with new material. Musically he went new ways and used samples and trip-hop style elements. Phil Collins and John Giblin appeared as guest musicians . His next album, The Church with One Bell from 1998, was also unusual for him as it only contained covers of songs by other artists. Martyn put his unmistakable signature on the pieces, and the album was a success especially in the USA: Martyn was able to buy the eponymous church next to his previous apartment, in which he has lived with his partner Teresa Walsh ever since.

The last few years

At the suggestion of Phil Collins, Martyn changed his approach to writing new pieces. He learned the keyboard and used this instrument instead of his guitar to compose. In 2000 he released the so-elaborated Glasgow Walker album , which contains a number of melancholy and gentle pieces and was well received by the critics.

In the next few years a number of concert recordings and compilations were published. Martyn struggled with health problems during this time, and in 2003 his leg was amputated with a cyst so that he could only step in a wheelchair. It was not until 2004 that an album with new material came out with On the Cobbles , which was recorded in various studios, mainly with acoustic instruments. Apart from a number of other compilations and live recordings, this was John Martyn's last album during his lifetime. Before his death, he had started work on a new album. This was completed after his death by participating musicians and was published in 2011 under the title "Heaven and Earth"

In December 2008, Martyn was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II . He died in January 2009 at the age of 60 from double pneumonia in a hospital in Ireland.

Discography

• London Conversation (1967)
• The Tumbler (1968)
• Stormbringer! (with Beverley Martyn) (1970)
• The Road to Ruin (with Beverley Martyn) (1970)
• Bless the Weather (1971)
• Solid Air (1973)
• Inside Out (1973)
• Sunday's Child (1975) (with Danny Thompson and Liam Genockey )
• Live at Leeds (1975) (with Danny Thompson and John Stevens )
• One World (1977)
• Grace & Danger (1980)
• Glorious Fool (1981)
• Well Kept Secret (1982)
• Philentropy (1983)
• Sapphire (1984)
• Piece by piece (1986)
• Foundations (1987)
• The Apprentice (1990)
• Cooltide (1991)
• BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert (1992)
• Couldn't Love You More (1992)
• No Little Boy (1993)
• Live (2CD), aka Dirty Down & Live and Classics Live (1995)
• And. (1996)
• The Church with One Bell (1998)
• Glasgow Walker (2000)
• On the Cobbles (2004)
• Heaven and Earth (2011)

Compilations

• Sweet Little Mysteries - The Island Anthology (1994)
• Ain't No Saint (2008)
• May You Never - The Very Best of John Martyn (2009)
• The Island Years (2013)
• Head and Heart - The Acoustic John Martyn (2017)

literature

• Colin Escott: Sweet Little Mysteries. Supplement to the compilation The Island Anthology , Island Records 1994.
• An Introduction to John Martyn. John Martyn website.

swell

1. ↑ UK chart discography
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
3. ^ "An electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues.", John Martyn: guitarist and singer. The Times Online January 30, 2009
4. ^ John's Diary 1960s and 1970s. John Martyn's website
5. ↑ "I'm not really that nice, and I very consciously turned my back on all of this." Quote from Escott 1994
6. ^ Escott 1994
7. ↑ "Tell me any name, I drank it ... it was a dark time in my life." John's Diary 1980s John Martyn's website
8. ↑ Glorious Fool. John Martyn's website
9. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 58929, HMSO, London, December 31, 2008, p. 11 ( PDF , English).
10. ↑ Simon Copeland: Johnny, too good. The Sun, January 29, 2009
11. ↑ Songwriter Martyn dies, aged 60. BBC News

Web links

Commons : John Martyn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• John Martyn website (English)
• Big Muff - The John Martyn Pages (English)
• Obituary BBC (English)