Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-07-22 - 9:51 p.m.

Started the day working on a post-Fifths piece. How many of these are there? Well there�s the one that�s a WAV on the PC upstairs out of a Cubase sequence which I was trying gtr timbres with first thing today. There�s the one that came into being at the weekend that�s got a sharp pulse and is sitting a a Cubase sequence downstairs. Maybe there�s another one but perhaps any possible ones are in the process of getting lost.. (That�s it for the other one?) ThAT is probably enough for now considering the first one is intended for variations.

I listened to a Bert Jansch compilation on the way to work. The new idea for me was to do with �It Don�t bother Me�� his second album. I like the song construction on the first album a lot � I think many of the songs stand up well after nearly 40 years. �It Don�t Bother Me� � the song itself - is in a different emotional key. Its easier to describe the lyric position which is pretty much what the title suggests. It�s a �beat� sentiment � cool taken to the extent of sustained disengagement. The interesting point is how Bert uses the clawhammer technique and modal harmony to reinforce these sentiments. Not at all like Bert�s most famous song (The Needle of Death) where the melody and harmony are full of twists and turns to project the sympathy and sorrow the spectator/singer feels for the addict. Rather than empathy/sympathy for another,� It Don�t Bother Me � is about self disengagement powerfully communicated in a flat vibrato less voice.

�At one point, I was absolutely obsessed with Bert Jansch. When I first heard that LP [1965], I couldn�t believe it. It was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing. No one in America could touch that.

Jimmy Page �

I realised that this lack of vibrato was an issue � Lester Young, Stan Getz, Trane � and of course Drake � perhaps most like Getz, Jansch most like Trane.

This morning �It Don�t Bother Me� reminded me of Pink Moon, especially in the way that the modal blues/traditionalsong devices were deployed to express a contemporary state of mind � with strong existentialist overtones. �It Don�t Bother Me �is cruder than most of the PM songs � more hard bop. That said it would not be too far fetched to see as gesturing to part of the musical landscape that Richard Thompson has taken over.

I must be thinking along these lines partly because of what Robin wrote yesterday about Gilbert�s tunes and also because I have started work on one. In fact Gilbert mailed today to say that he had at last found a recorded guitar sound that he liked.

Maybe I will get Fifths into the post for him tomorrow.

Another track on the sampler is from Nicola, an album Bert did around 1967 � I think during the period of maximum commercial interest in him. They obviously spent a lot on the musicians (15) and the track here deserves comparison with such as John Cameron�s arrangements for Donovan, Robert K�s stuff with Nick, the Judy Collins albums esp Wildflowers some of which Joshua Rifkin was involved in.

�Woe is Love My Dear� is arranged by David Palmer and nicely recorded in a fairly live acoustic space although I think the brass is overwritten. Its about as far from Don�t Bother Me as you can get and of the examples quoted probably closest to Judy Collins� Wildflowers (which in my book is a compliment.) I think she gets away with it slightly better � even on the symphonic Tom Thumb�s Blues � maybe because the theme is on the scale of the orchestration.

I thought I�d given up with Pentangle but I�d forgotten how good Terry Cox was with Danny Thompson. There�s quite a good electric track from around 1971 but as soon as the lead playing starts you can�t help but compare with R Thompson,

And yet those first three or so albums are as fresh and as distinctive as the day I first heard them in the sixth form in West London. I think a lot of them were just recorded in rooms around Kingston Surrey (where Yvonne is doing her Masters). You can�t help thinking of the comparison with Davy Graham where the best stuff he did around 66 and 67 was recorded in a students room. They all hit the guitar hard � maybe Bert gave up doing that because he couldn�t sustain his fingers or because microphones got better and more numerous.

Once you plunge into that subject tough, its pretty bottomless. I looked up Dorris Henderson in Google and found myself cited about five in � that was a shock.

These solo guitarists were SO influential � this can�t be over estimated � commentators seem agreed on that. And if you ask what happened to the music the you have to look at John Martyn, Nick and Gilbert � hope I am sparing him his blushes. But it seems to me that he is writing out of that tradition some of the time but with an enormous grasp of jazz and avant garde. Its not the original trio weren�t into that. What makes Davy Graham a genius is that he discovered world music in 1962 while being able to do the best solo acoustic guitar be-bop for several decades around.. Gilbert takes the range and vision that these pioneers had and applies it to today�s scene � while at the same time sometimes coming up with pieces which sound like they were first played in Cousins in 1966.

Paul will probably be kicking me under the table asking me where his name might fit in. Too long to answer that here. Oh I suppose there�s another Paul from that scene � Paul Simon.

The operational stats on www.kwase-kwasa.org clearly show the impact of a listing in the news section of the ND files as that site rockets up to be the most common source of visitors. Kind of Mikael to give us that position. Even though he hasn�t modified the site much for months as Robin said, it shows how much traffic he must get.

Robin�s experience supports this.

Lynne mailed to say how much she appreciated a further tranche of money � about half of it from the CDs � the rest from local donations. I have started work with Derek Ridgers on a flyer � his advertising background is really helpful.

I got an e-mail from someone who used to know Ian Macdonald quite well and who now is acquainted with Alec Reid, producer of the second ND radio session. I suppose it shows how tightly knit parts of UK society are.

Here�s a coincidence � on the way to work I was thinking that Imac might be right � not overall (of course not!!!) - but about where it was that we first heard Nick that afternoon � he thinks its Kings � it�s the point at which he opens his long MOJO article. As I listened to Bert suddenly that idea came into my head that it was Kings rather than Caius � I could see the leaded lights on the open windows. Seious temporal disengagement.

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