BBC Live In Concert - John Martyn

Advantages: Highly original and relaxing acoustic guitar songs, superbly played
Disadvantages: Inferior bonus tracks might interfere with the mood of the album for some.

.... Back Down The River is a plain and gentle song, just John on his own, short and sweet. We then come to the climax of the whole album, Glistening Glyndebourne. This is a six and a half minute instrumental jam. It starts out building slowly for a couple of minutes with piano, double bass and guitar, before markedly picking up tempo, and adding congas and drums. Martyn for the first time uses the Echoplex on his guitar, which adds rhythmic layers of sound to the whole piece, a technique that he was to feature prominently on future recordings and live performances. Martyn finally closes out with a short but idiosyncratic version of Singing In The Rain. On its own this track would be questionable, but in context of the whole album, it's included as a light-humoured contrast to the previous extraordinary track and wraps up the album... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Provides a great introduction to John Martyns folk, blues, and jazz fusion
Disadvantages: Only contains work from 71-87

...This is truly a sweet little mystery of fusion music. I found that the cd indulged varied styles from jazz to tradition folk. Anyone who has an interest in chilled jazz or acoustic music will regard the compilation highly. Very good value for money and the hardcore fans will get what they want due to a cleverly compiled album. A good insight to John Martyns work over these 16 years however this is also the miner flaw as his earlier work is regarded as the best, and this version of Spencer the rover is not his greatest, as I would have preferred his live recording. A strong album of life with underlining jazz rhythms and melodies with an influence of skip James tweaking. A album of pure effortless elegance. Truly experimental, relaxing and meaningful tunes.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Excellent musically and lyrically
Disadvantages: Relatively unknown

...Singer songwriters seem to be back in vogue recently, as can be seen with the huge success of David Gray and Beth Orton (she calls Martyn ‘The Guv'nor’) or the more melodic ballad based music of groups such as Travis and Coldplay. With all the focus on the new acts it easy to forget the long tradition that Britain has for producing great singer/songwriters. People like Nick Drake are just now being re-discovered by a new generation and in the same way I think it’s time that one of the best records of the 70’s by one of the UK’s most talented songwriters and performers should also be re-evaluated. BACKGROUND John Martyn was born in England in 1948 to a Scottish father and English mother, he was brought up in Scotland living in Glasgow and has considered himself Scottish ever since. He started his music career early in 1964... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful