Record of the day: John Martyn, “In Session”

John Martyn
“In Session” (Cd Island 9841963)

A few years ago Island decided to make public these recordings by John Martyn, which had been circulating for years in pirated versions with decidedly lower audio quality (and at much higher prices).
Martyn, a great Scottish artist, started from positions based on folk-rock to soon arrive at a composite language (which includes and reworks in a unique way disparate influences such as dub, rock, blues, electronic and traditional acoustic music) capable of distinguishing him from anyone else.

These recordings made for the BBC cover a span of his career that goes from 1973 to 1977, dedicating space to solo performances that see him in the company of his own arsenal of effects (echoes, reverbs, etc.) capable of transforming the electric guitar into a real band, while there are equally numerous strictly acoustic performances, where it is possible to appreciate all of Martyn’s instrumental skill.

His voice is impossible to describe, it absolutely must be listened to to understand what levels of depth and beauty a sincere artist without ties to the music business can reach. Warm and enveloping, sometimes suspended on the edge of a whisper and in other moments violent to the point of tearing the vocal cords, it appears as an instrument with potentially infinite expressive capabilities, which Martyn uses as a master, drawing directly from his own
soul to pour out a torrent of continuous emotions on the listeners.

Struggling with Gaelic folk melodies (“Eihbli Ghail Chiuin Ni Chearbhail”) or with the continuous pulsation of the Echoplex in “Inside”, where his love for the long improvisations of John Coltrane and Pharaoh Sanders is revealed, Martyn is in great form and offers us unrepeatable moments.

Even the acoustic sessions are a marvel, in particular those where Danny Thompson’s double bass (his spiritual and musical twin as well as drinking companion) interacts telepathically with Martyn through wide lines, always of great musical interest.

Any Martyn record you buy from 1973 to today is great, and this compilation represents an excellent opportunity to
get closer to the world of this amazingly talented artist: I’m sure that once you start, you will get all his records.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.