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  #16  
Old 05-04-2012, 03:56 PM
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Bern Bern is offline
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Here's a low key interview with Mr.Jansch...I think, his resemblance with Clapton is purely accidental.
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  #17  
Old 05-05-2012, 04:53 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bern View Post
Here's a low key interview with Mr.Jansch...I think, his resemblance with Clapton is purely accidental.
He was never the greatest interview subject was he? Always looked like he'd wandered into the wrong studio, and couldn't understand why he was being asked all these questions...

I'm guessing he may have been ill already at this stage (less than a year before his death), which might have contributed to his discomfort. But he's no more comfortable in this older one, in the face of some toe-curling sycophancy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jjkh...eature=related

He's actually quite right there that in the mid-60s everybody (in London folk clubs) was playing in that style. Jansch was the best, but not by a great margin. He was considered as about equal with John Renbourn, and maybe slightly better than Stefan Grossman, John Martyn, Ralph McTell, John James, Mike Chapman, Wizz Jones, Cliff Aungier, Gerry Lockran, etc. (In the mid 60s, I actually found Aungier and Lockran more impressive performers than Jansch, maybe because their vigorous Broonzy ragtime-blues style was more in your face.)
What Jansch did have that the others didn't have so much was that air of cool, morose detachment; he had the image, a kind of reverse charisma. The very fact that he didn't put himself forward in the spotlight drew you in. And - to be fair - he had a more original imagination than most of the others (with the important exception of John Martyn, who was like a hyperactive teen in the late 60s - clever but cute - and didn't flower until later).
When Neil Young called him the "Hendrix of the acoustic guitar", that was more because of his innovative techniques than his sheer technical wizardry, compared with the names above, who were often equally as skilled, but more like blues-ragtime revivalists. Jansch was an artist, not just a craftsman, revealing what the acoustic guitar was capable of, opening up the future rather than just honouring the past, in the same way Hendrix did with electric.

In 1965-69 at least, in the absence of the elusive Davy Graham (who I never saw once in those days, while I saw all the above many times), Jansch was The Man. He kind of captured the zeitgeist (accidentally), not only through his intricate "folk-baroque" guitar technique, but his sensitive, introspective songwriting, which very much suited the acoustic side of the hippie era, the necessary "organic, folk-roots" balance to electric psychedelia. (Donovan, a Jansch disciple, expressed that mood in more commercial terms, and of course passed Jansch's techniques on to the Beatles in India. Hence Dear Prudence and Julia, and possibly Blackbird...)
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  #18  
Old 05-08-2012, 11:29 AM
sandy99 sandy99 is offline
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Default Avocet - live

hi all - here is the version of Avocet I'd love to convince someone to tab out? My skills won't cut it. Beautiful, haunting version of the song, just guitar. Quite different from the album, a lot shorter, etc. Sublime. You can stream it from the below link (wait for it to load a bit) or just right-click the mp3 file to download it. I promise this is not malware waiting to pounce on your trusting machine...
www.sandy-campbell.com/sc/jansch.html
thanks!
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  #19  
Old 02-02-2018, 05:36 PM
jlv34 jlv34 is offline
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Default Wilde Mountain Thyme

Hi All,

Does somebody have the tab of Jansch version of Wilde Mountain Thyme ?

I have a pretty big collection of Jansch and Renbourn tabs and ready to send some on request.

Best regards,
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  #20  
Old 02-03-2018, 04:09 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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I have tab for Wild Mountain Thyme - pm me with your email.

I have a large collection of Jansch transcriptions - some mine, some by others - and I collaborated on a recent collection authorised by the Bert Jansch Foundation:
https://www.musicroom.com/product-de...nsch-songbook/

We are contemplating a second volume and - while we have more than enough already for a short list! - we'd welcome any additions you have, especially if they enable us to cross-check and improve current tabs (which was my main task on the above book!).

The BJF is a charity, btw, with members of Bert's family among the trustees. See here for more: https://bertjanschfoundation.org/
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  #21  
Old 02-05-2018, 09:55 AM
sirwhale sirwhale is offline
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I can attest to the quality of the Bert Jansch book and would be happy to see another
I'd like to see "Poison" and "Lady Nothing" and "She Moved Through the Fair".

But for now, I'm having enough trouble with Chambertin.
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  #22  
Old 02-05-2018, 10:15 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sirwhale View Post
I can attest to the quality of the Bert Jansch book and would be happy to see another
Thanks! Good to hear. Let the BJF know, if you haven't already.
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Originally Posted by sirwhale View Post
I'd like to see "Poison" and "Lady Nothing" and "She Moved Through the Fair".
'Poison' may well go in. It's very similar to 'A Woman Like You', IMO, and my own preference is for that one, but 'Poison' is a popular one.

The others are certainly on the "long list". 'Lady Nothing' is a Renbourn piece, but that wouldn't rule it out. Good to include a few covers.
I have transcriptions for all (checked in the usual way, but not yet gone through the consultation process the first book did).
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But for now, I'm having enough trouble with Chambertin.
Keep at it! When I first heard that one (only a couple of years ago) I was gobsmacked and never thought I'd be able to do it. Now I can! (It didn't take a couple of years, but it did take a month or two.)

Did you see my demo? It's not exactly the same as the transcription; I do a couple of things a little different from Bert, although I'm closer to how he did it than the other covers online (FWIW):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weJ1W2Ci5IY

Reference videos from the man himself (partially helpful):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_wHyywbUgs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_mWY8tASjk
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  #23  
Old 02-07-2018, 03:51 PM
troggg troggg is offline
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Anyone know a good source for "A Woman Like You?"
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  #24  
Old 02-07-2018, 05:30 PM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Originally Posted by troggg View Post
Anyone know a good source for "A Woman Like You?"
I have a full transcription. I need to check through it, but I can email you a pdf.
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  #25  
Old 02-07-2018, 05:38 PM
Joe Beamish Joe Beamish is offline
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Jansch played so well. He was the most fluid of the (fill in the category/genre term of your choice; I don’t like them) among his other great qualities. Fluidity.

Neil Young’s comparison of Jansch to Hendrix is really apt. Other guitarists played in the same musical land as Jimi, but somehow they all were more polite than he was. Similarly, Jansch with his approach had an effect of coloring outside the lines and transcending the instrument.

The notes are easy to figure out from the many live performances on Youtube. That’s where I get the less obvious ones. Most of the Jansch arrangements are easy enough to play for a fingerstyle guitarist. But doing them well — expressing tempo and dynamics and a sensitivity to the task of accompanying a vocal — can be difficult.
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  #26  
Old 02-08-2018, 03:55 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Beamish View Post
Jansch played so well. He was the most fluid of the (fill in the category/genre term of your choice; I don’t like them) among his other great qualities. Fluidity.

Neil Young’s comparison of Jansch to Hendrix is really apt. Other guitarists played in the same musical land as Jimi, but somehow they all were more polite than he was. Similarly, Jansch with his approach had an effect of coloring outside the lines and transcending the instrument.

The notes are easy to figure out from the many live performances on Youtube. That’s where I get the less obvious ones. Most of the Jansch arrangements are easy enough to play for a fingerstyle guitarist. But doing them well — expressing tempo and dynamics and a sensitivity to the task of accompanying a vocal — can be difficult.
Exactly. Most of his pieces are not hard to learn to play. But to play them with his relaxed feel, his control of rhythm, tone and dynamics, and to sing at the same time - that's real craftsmanship. Despite his nonchalant, laid-back air, almost careless, he was a consummate professional.

IOW, while his pieces are often technically challenging, they were always well within his level of skill. He never played at the limits of his technique (except possibly when practising in private). We might find them difficult, but he found them easy, simply because he worked on them over and over until they were thoroughly ingrained.
He also never played flashily, to show off - except perhaps right at the beginning of his career, as teenager establishing a reputation (the early Joint Control, never recorded in a studio, is a kind of technical CV , his "here I am, dudes, check this out"). Once he was established, his playing was always in the service of the song, or the instrumental melody, so was often relatively simple.

Imagine sitting in a folk club in 1963/4, you've heard a few trad singers strumming some cowboy chords, you're thinking this scene is pretty cool, then this kid comes out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D93DayTDXk
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Last edited by JonPR; 02-08-2018 at 04:00 AM.
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  #27  
Old 02-08-2018, 04:07 AM
frankhond frankhond is offline
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Rolly Brown has a Bert Jansch lesson with several tunes on Stefan Grossman Guitar Workshop www.guitarvideos.com. I think starting there will help getting into the tabs for any other BJ song, it really helps to see Rolly break down the complicated sounding stuff, most of it turns out to be pretty simple. Which was Berts genius, to create simple but complicated sounding stuff .
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  #28  
Old 02-08-2018, 04:57 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by frankhond View Post
Rolly Brown has a Bert Jansch lesson with several tunes on Stefan Grossman Guitar Workshop www.guitarvideos.com. I think starting there will help getting into the tabs for any other BJ song, it really helps to see Rolly break down the complicated sounding stuff, most of it turns out to be pretty simple. Which was Berts genius, to create simple but complicated sounding stuff .
Rolly was one of our consultants on the BJF book (see above), and allowed us to use his material as reference alongside all the other tabs we sourced.

He's certainly one of the best and most hard-working teachers of Bert's music. He has a demo of Blackwaterside on youtube which is the most accurate I've seen (certainly more accurate than one Stefan Grossman did), in terms of exactly how Bert played it. I'm sure he won't mind me saying his playing is not as smooth as Bert's (!), but when whose is? The fingering is spot on, and that's what you need.

For anyone interested in that tune, btw, bear in mind Bert's 1966 original was a prototype which he continued to adapt, and later versions - plenty available on youtube - have a few differences. I mean in the basic structure and patterns, because of course he always added improvised sections anyway. That's one of the lessons you draw from Bert's music the more you study it: he composed intricately arranged structures - which would hold their form for decades - but always left room for improvisation. But some things that sound improvised were pre-composed, and vice-versa: he could improvise in ways that sounded prepared, and did have a selection of favourite licks that would crop up in improvised sections in various tunes.
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  #29  
Old 02-08-2018, 09:22 AM
troggg troggg is offline
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Quote:
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I have a full transcription. I need to check through it, but I can email you a pdf.
Really appreciate you sending that! Now if you happen to have a drum removal tool ... where's John Bonham when you need him?
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  #30  
Old 02-08-2018, 06:10 PM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Really appreciate you sending that! Now if you happen to have a drum removal tool ... where's John Bonham when you need him?
These drumless versions may be of some assistance (or perhaps not):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXwwLMSBcdU - from before Birthday Blues! (too much face not enough guitar! )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYEX2XcFavw - note capo on 6.
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