Wednesday 2 September 2015, 8pm
Tribute night for the great Robbie Basho featuring three masters of finger-picked guitar. The concert will help to raise completion costs for Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho, an upcoming feature-length documentary by London-based filmmaker Liam Barker. A special preview of the film will be screened on the night.
Robbie Basho
Robbie Basho (1940 - 1986) was a Berkeley-based composer, guitarist, and vocalist and one of the foremost proponents of steel string acoustic guitar as a solo concert instrument. Along with John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Basho was part of the triumvirate of pioneering guitarists on the Berkeley-based Takoma label in the 1960s. Basho went on to record for Windham Hill, and was an important influence on the label’s founder, guitarist William Ackerman. His innovative guitar compositions incorporated American folk, European, and Eastern influences, and he is credited for developing the improvisational “American raga” style.
The Documentary
Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a journey into the heart of an artist's lifelong struggle - designed to illuminate and satiate existing fans while serving as a perfect starting point for the uninitiated. The documentary features interviews with Basho's former students, contemporaries and few close friends; integrated with previously unpublished archive material and photography of the landscapes and natural phenomena that informed Basho's work. With the resurgence of interest in Basho continuing to grow, it is surely an auspicious time for his unique music and life story to be evoked through documentary.
www.robbiebashofilm.com
Whether working with the paintbrush, the guitar or the pen, Steffen manages to conjure up works of extreme intensity, focus and creativity.
Initially, interested in the writings of Basho, the Japanese poet and diarist of 17th century... Living on the 'wrong' side of the then still standing Berlin wall (wrong side for collectors of world music, probably the right side for internalising a persons unique creativity). Not everything from 'out side' culture penetrated through the wall, but fortunately two very important tracks did: Elk Dreamer's Lament and Variations on Ezumi by 60s Guitarist, Robbie Basho. The style of playing heard on these tracks would be the start of a journey of fascination and homage for Steffen, a journey that would end some years later with Steffen Junghans becoming Steffen Basho-Junghans. On hearing Robbie Basho's playing, one can indeed hear the influence/similarities, but don't be fooled, SB-J is certainly his own man. - Architects of Harmonic Rooms
A master of the 6 and 12 string guitar, Steffen Basho-Junghans moves between highly intricate patterns and bare, minimalist sections to create music of astounding beauty. He brings together Oriental and American Indian scale patterns, Folk-Western Raga as well as elements taken from the old Takoma School.
Over the last decade, C Joynes has ploughed a singular furrow through solo guitar, with a body of work incorporating English folk-tunes alongside North & West African music, and lifting proto-minimalist and improvised techniques from the European classical and avant-garde traditions.
Joynes has released 10 albums to date, including ‘Poor Boy On The Wire’ (2021), his first solo album dedicated wholly to the electric guitar; ‘The Borametz Tree’ (2019), recorded with long-term fellow travellers Dead Rat Orchestra; and ‘The Wild Wild Berry’, a collaboration with singer Stephanie Hladowski (fROOTS Editors Choice Album Of The Year 2012, MOJO Top 5 Folk Albums 2012). He has recorded a number of sessions for BBC Radio 3. He has also played extensively across the UK, Europe and the USA, sharing bills with a broad range of performers including Shirley Collins, Martin Carthy, Marc Ribot, Richard Dawson, Alasdair Roberts, Jack Rose, Josephine Foster, Sir Richard Bishop, Six Organs Of Admittance and 75 Dollar Bill.
Shifting away from the electric guitar of his most recent solo activities, he’s currently exploring the uses of an amplified archtop guitar, exploiting the instrument’s potential for placing intricate parlour music alongside overdriven garage blues throw-downs and the brittle ringing tones of free improvisation.
“As much Conlon Nancarrow and Ali Farka Toure as Blind Lemon Jefferson, the compositional mind at work here can take apparently disparate threads of modernism and ethnic tradition and treat them as though they were all archaic blues styles learnt from dusty 78s.” – BRUCE RUSSELL, THE WIRE
“An inheritor to Davy Graham; a lone operator prone to unexpected collaborations, with a repertoire that crosses continents and timezones with consummate ease, and dashed off with a phenomenal, yet lightly applied technique.” ROB YOUNG, THE WIRE
Nick Jonah Davis is a solo instrumental guitarist from Nottingham, England. He has been acclaimed as ‘Probably the finest solo guitar player in the land’, delivering ‘a high-wire act that very few guitarists could pull off’. Nick’s music is based fundamentally in British folk, but also incorporates elements from American Primitive, Indian Classical music, free improv and a host of other sources. The resulting blend has been aptly described as ‘a highly spirited series of wordless tales’, captivating audiences in the UK, USA and Europe.
