Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter. He recorded more than 28 albums and toured extensively from the 1960s to the 21st century. Jansch was a leading figure in the 1960s British folk revival, touring folk clubs and recording several solo albums, as well as collaborating with other musicians such as John Renbourn and Anne Briggs. In 1968, he co-founded the band Pentangle, touring and recording with them until their break-up in 1972. He then took a few years’ break from music, returning in the late 1970s to work on a series of projects with other musicians. He joined a reformed Pentangle in the early 1980s and remained with them as they evolved through various changes of personnel until 1995. Until his death, Jansch continued to work as a solo artist. Jansch’s work influenced many artists, especially Jimmy Page, Mike Oldfield, Paul Simon, Pete Hawkes, Nick Drake, Donovan, and Neil Young. He received two Lifetime Achievement Awards at the BBC Folk Awards: one, in 2001, for his solo achievements and the other, in 2007, as a member of Pentangle.
Bert At The BBC | Bert Jansch (bandcamp.com)
Bert At The BBC by Bert Jansch, Bert Jansch, Earth Recordings, 2022 on #neuguitars #blog #BertJansch
Bert At the BBC is a comprehensive collection of Jansch’s appearances at the BBC, featuring over eight hours of rare and unreleased recordings, including live-on-air spots, studio sessions and full concerts straight from the BBC vaults, delving further into this legendary performer’s canon. Bert Jansch was the very essence of folk music, providing inspiration for everyone from Paul Simon and Neil Young to Led Zeppelin and countless folk revivalists.
This unparalleled limited-edition compendium is available as a 4xLP and 8xCD set, housed in a coffee-table bookback set with 40 pages of liner notes, tracing the recordings from Bert’s earliest moments at the BBC. It includes interviews and insights from Lauren Laverne, Jools Holland, Johnny Marr, Jacqui McShee, Bob Harris, Bernard Butler, Mark Radcliffe and many more. Twenty broadcasters, producers and collaborators contribute at length to the booklet, with great affection for this gentle, maverick genius.
Bert’s BBC legacy remains the most significant and exciting untapped reservoir of his music. The undeniable advantage of recordings made for broadcast is that they were, by their nature, created for public consumption and, barring live-on-air appearances – which might go well or go badly, but were going out either way – were explicitly signed-off by the artist as representations of his art that were good enough to be heard.
“He was that rarity, a musician who really did deserve to be regarded as a legend.” The Guardian
The set is compiled by Colin Harper, author of Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British folk and blues revival (Bloomsbury, 2000), who contributes detailed liner notes to the package. The release is mastered by IFTA award-winning engineer Cormac O’Kane.
The vinyl release features 48 tracks on LP and is accompanied by a download card with over six hours of extras spanning 1966–2009, including BBC4’s St Luke’s concert (2003), and a complete Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh concert (2004) for BBC Radio Scotland. It is also available as a special 8xCD set containing all 147 tracks and encased within a coffee-table book.
Bert Jansch At The BBC is an epic and enduring trail, 45 years in the making.
“As a guitar player there was no one like him. He was jazz and blues and folk but there was a whole world in there that was just him, esoteric” Johnny Marr
credits
releases October 1, 2022
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