Bert Jansch

Scottish folk guitarist, singer, and songwriter

• Born: November 3, 1943
• Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
• Died: October 5, 2011

Strongly influenced by folk music during his early years, Jansch evolved into a folk-rock musician, using popular, jazz, and blues elements for his compositions and performances.

Member of Pentangle

The Life

Herbert Jansch (jansh) was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 3, 1943, of Austrian-Scottish parentage, but he lived in Edinburgh for most of his childhood. During his mid-teens, Jansch studied the guitar with Jill Doyle, whose stepbrother Davy (later spelled Davey) Graham, in 1961, wrote “Angi,” a piece that Jansch recorded in 1965. In the early 1960’s he spent time in London, where he became acquainted with the music of Jackson C. Frank, Bob Dylan, and Paul Simon. He recorded his first album, Bert Jansch, under primitive circumstances in the home of Bill Leader, his London-based producer, over several months in 1964 and 1965.

Jansch solicited the talents of his flatmate, guitarist John Renbourn, on his next two albums. In September of 1966, Jansch gave Renbourn equal billing on Bert and John. During this fertile period, Jansch and Renbourn were overseeing a London folk club, and they became associated with London-born folksinger Jacqui McShee, percussionist Terry Cox, and bassist Danny Thompson to form the acclaimed folk-rock group Pentangle in 1967. Pentangle reflected Jansch’s diverse stylistic creativity until 1973, when the group disbanded. Jansch maintained a steady output of solo albums while he was associated with Pentangle. Later group connections, notably with Conundrum and the Second Pentangle, were short-lived.

The Music

Jansch’s premier skill was his guitar playing. The aggressive, percussive approach of his fingerpicking style begged attention, even from the casual listener. Beginning with his first home-produced recording in 1964, Jansch’s performing conformed to a high standard of excellence. Jansch’s voice presented an untrained but easygoing sound; he reached for his notes and wrapped his voice around the pitch, keeping the listener attentive. His early compositions reflected a debt to Bob Dylan’s poetic rendition of original material demonstrated through voice and guitar.

Early Works. Jansch honed his guitar skills in the folk clubs of Edinburgh and London during the early 1960’s. His first album, Bert Jansch, features Jansch as singer and guitarist. “Needle of Death” is a moving, if brutally honest, eulogy to a friend, who had died of a heroin overdose. The heavily blues-influenced “Strolling Down the Highway” is a masterful showcase for Jansch’s mature acoustic guitar skills. Included in a rerelease of these early recordings is an eight-and-a-half-minute piece, “Instrumental Medley 1964.” Despite the flaws of recording (interference of a handheld mike, a door creaking, and Jansch humming), the work testifies to Jansch’s high level of improvisational skill.

“Jack Orion.” The traditional song “Jack Orion” makes two notably different appearances. Its initial manifestation, on the album Jack Orion in 1966, with Renbourn on the second guitar, is a nine-and-a-half-minute murder-suicide ballad, constructed on an F minor chord alternating with an E-flat major chord. Jansch uses the higher octave of the tonic note like a recitation tone, eventually falling to the lower octave at the cadence of each quatrain. He includes spontaneous-sounding blues responses on the lead guitar as the song progresses. The 1970 version on Pentangle’s Cruel Sister lasts eighteen and a half minutes, with Jansch alternating the lead vocal line with McShee. The first seven minutes recall the early Jansch recording style, but then Jansch and Renbourn take recorders in hand (with Thompson on a bowed upright bass) and produce an antiquated stylistic effect for the next four minutes. Then the group turns to a purely jazz style in an instrumental segment, featuring some astonishing guitar solo work, before finishing the story in the recording’s opening style.

“The Black Swan.” As a composed song from 2006, “The Black Swan,” from The Black Swan, is a fine example of Jansch’s orchestration abilities. His guitar playing provides a stabilizing foundation for cello, percussion, and keyboard to support his singing. The space-age lyrics consider life from a universal perspective. Although the swan of this song bears no musical relation to other musical swans, Orlando Gibbons’s “The Silver Swan” (1612) and Camille Saint-Saëns’s “The Swan” from Carnival of Animals (1886), the finality of life in the Gibbons madrigal text and the lonely elegance of the cello in the Saint-Saëns work do come to mind during the Jansch creation. The guitar part is based primarily on a B minor ninth chord moving to an A major chord, as the voice travels leisurely downward from the ninth (C-sharp) to the notes of the A major chord. After two repetitions of these chord progressions, the motion is echoed in the closing of each stanza with an E major chord moving to a B minor chord. An instrumental coda presents more melodic freedom in the cello part.

Musical Legacy

Although Jansch’s music did not earn massive popular recognition, the artist was revered by many musicians and followers, who appreciated his energetic approach to a fingerpicking guitar style. He experimented with various tunings, which was emulated by many guitarists. In addition to his usual instrument, the six-string acoustic guitar, he occasionally used the twelve-string guitar, the electric guitar, the banjo, the dulcimer, the piano, and the recorder, adding to the colorful variety of music evident in his many albums. He served as an inspiration for Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin fame), Neil Young, and fellow Scotsman Donovan.

Principal Recordings

albums (solo): Bert Jansch, 1965; It Don’t Bother Me, 1965; Bert and John, 1966 (with John Renbourn); Jack Orion, 1966; Needle of Death, 1966; Nicola, 1967; Birthday Blues, 1969; Lucky Thirteen, 1969; Sampler, 1969; Stepping Stone, 1969; Rosemary Lane, 1971; Box of Love, 1972; Moonshine, 1973; L.A. Turnaround, 1974; Santa Barbara Honeymoon, 1975; A Rare Conundrum, 1977; Avocet, 1979; Thirteen Down, 1980; Heartbreak, 1982; From the Outside, 1985; Leather Laundrette, 1988 (with Rod Clements); Ornament Tree, 1990; Sketches, 1990; When the Circus Comes to Town, 1995; Conundrum, 1998; Toy Balloon, 1998; Crimson Moon, 2000; Edge of a Dream, 2002; River Sessions, 2004; The Black Swan, 2006.

albums (with Pentangle): The Pentangle, 1968; Sweet Child, 1968; Basket of Light, 1969; Cruel Sister, 1970; Reflection, 1971; Solomon’s Seal, 1972; Pentangling, 1973; Open the Door, 1985; In the Round, 1986; So Early in the Spring, 1990; Think of Tomorrow, 1991; One More Road, 1993; On Air, 1997; Passe Avant, 1999.

Bibliography

Harper, Colin. Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival. London: Bloomsbury, 2006. Harper, an Irish music journalist, presents a thorough biography of Jansch.

Hodgkinson, Will. Guitar Man. London: Bloomsbury, 2006. On a quest to learn how to play the guitar in six months well enough to perform a gig in public, the author seeks the help of several guitarists, including Jansch, who figures most prominently in the chapter “The Cosmic Guitarist.”

Stambler, Irwin, and Lyndon Stambler. Folk and Blues: The Encyclopedia. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. The article on Jansch covers important contacts during his early life and quotes extensively from journal interviews.