Customer Reviews

Best of Bert Jansch

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This album was originally released by Transatlantic (and distributed by Kicking Mule in the U.S.) in 1979 with the same album cover, but with only thirteen tracks--and only eight of those show up on this generous 25-track anthology of Bert Jansch's work from 1965-1971, covering such albums as It Don't Bother Me, Jack Orion (with future Pentangle co-founder John Renbourn), Nicola, Birthday Blues and Rosemary Lane.

The Best of Bert Jansch includes instrumentals like "Perigrinations," "Alman" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"--all clocking in at under two minutes each. Then there's the bluesy interpretaion of Davey Graham's instrumental "Angie." In addition to being a gifted guitar player, his songwriting and expressive vocals on songs like "It Don't Bother Me" and "Needle of Death" make Jansch one of the most important folk artists of the 20th Century.

While Jansch's albums from the past two decades have been few and often go out of print (I would recommend 1981's Heartbreak and 1990's Ornament Tree), his early Transatlantic recordings are still readily available (many of them as two-fers). So if this album leaves you wanting more (and it should), I would suggest Rosemary Lane, Birthday Blues and his self-titled debut. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I have been a Bert Jansch fan for over thirty years, own just about all of his recorded material, and count him as my single favorite performer. This anthology is clearly the best one available as of this writing (the other reviewer's comments notwithstanding--some of the "tape stretch" he refers to was also present on the 33 rpm issues: a lot of Jansch's early material was recorded at home on a portable tape player, so high audio quality can hardly be expected). If you can't admire the man's significant creative genius from this sample of tracks, there's no hope for you--it would be difficult to come up with the name of another acoustic guitarist in the second half of the 20th century who produced a more original and influential style than did Jansch. And the good news is that this sample by no means exhausts his catalog of first-rate material.

Im listening to this CD as Im writing this review and Im exceedingly stunned by the raw beauty of the playing and production.

Im new to this artist, but this is simply one of the best finger-style CDs I have ever bought.

bluesy/celtic/salty vocals...

This is a six star!

Neil Young once said that Bert Jansch did for the acoustic guitar in the 1960s what Jimi Hendrix did for the electric guitar, and you can take that statement at face value or you can listen to "The Best of Bert Jansch" and decide for yourself. Chances are you will recognize the first track, "Blackwaterside" as being the inspiration, so to speak, for Jimmy Page's "Black Mountain Side" on "Led Zeppelin I." Which reminds me, that as long as we are throwing around comparisons of acoustic guitar playing to electric guitar playing when Jansch joined up with John Renbourn in the group Pentacle it was the equivalent of having Page and Jeff Beck playing with the Yardbirds at the same time. You might also recognize "Angi" from an early Simon & Garfunkle album, an instrumental piece written by Davey Graham, so there are some major influences involved here even if for some reason you have not heard of Jansch until now. Just to complete the circle, "Blackwaterside" is somewhat reminiscent of Graham's "She Moved Tho' the Fair," so apparently Jansch be both a borrower and a lender.

It will not take you long to become convinced that Jansch's stark fingerpicking is first class. What will take longer is realizing that he is a decent songwriter as well. There are a few traditional pieces here, starting with "Black Water Side" and continuing with "Reynardine" and "The Gardner." But of the twenty-five tracks collected here on this 1990 release from Shanachie, sixteen are written by Jansch. The best known is "Needle of Death," inspired by the death of a friend on heroin, which is ironic given that it is an atypical Jansch song, where the singing and the lyrics overshadow the guitar playing. But when Jansch included lyrics with his songs they did tend to be rather dark in nature. Most of these songs are short, two to three minutes, in length, which explains why you end up with only 66 minutes of music with twenty-five tracks. But that is still over an hour's worth of music that establishes Jansch as an important figure in the British folk movement.

Jansch's singing seems indifferent at times, but there are a few moments where he is committed to his voice being the primary instrument, such as on "Needle of Death" and his cover of Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Still, it is the guitar playing, which sounds like it comes from the Renaissance one moment, as with "Nicola" and "Sarabanda," and another you find him playing blues guitars on tracks like "Strolling, Strolling Down the Highway" and "Come Back Baby." If you want you can just program this CD to do nothing but the instrumental tracks: 2, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22 and 24, and have a really fine album right there. In fact, when you get to songs like "Poisoned" and "Promised Land" where there are suddenly drums and other instruments you are rather surprised and just want to get back to Jansch playing his guitar, whether he bothers to sing or not.

The songs are not arranged chronologically, so you are going to have tracks from his first album, recorded on a portable tape player in the kitchen of his London flat with Jansch playing a borrowed guitar, alternating with those from the end of the 1960s when he was going for a more commercial sound using studio musicians before he returned to a sound more in lines with his earlier folk recordings. But "The Best of Bert Jansch" is obligated to cover the entire spectrum of the height of his musical career. Most of his original albums are out on CDs, sometimes in combinations (e.g., his first and third albums, "Bert Jansch" and "Jack Onion"), all of which will persuade you to remember Jansch when you start ticking off the names of the greatest guitar players of your lifetime.

I bought this album on the basis of a review in Sterophile Magazine. Big mistake! The acoustic guitar playing is very nice and he is obviousley a good technician with regard to his playing but unforunately, his playing is interrupted with his singing which is not in the least enjoyable. Good guitarist, poor vocals.

Bert Jansch in his prime handled his guitar like a flamenco-playing gypsy (complete with ear-ring) besotted with Charles Mingus, and sang like a war-pipe mourning the dead. And when he cut loose with one of the ancient murder-ballads he bloody meant it. Anyone who compares this man with Nick Drake, let alone Donovan, should have his bloody throat slashed with the sock-dirk Jansch undoubtedly kept in the leg of his jeans in case somebody touched his guitar.

Along with John Fahey, Doc Watson and Sandy Bull, one of the first generation of acoustic guitar-gods. I read recently on the net that he recently received an award from the Brits "for lifetime achievement," and I can imagine his response. "High bloody time."

Coming of age in the sixties with a guitar in your hand, it was impossible to ignore Bert's work. Solo, with John Renbourne, in Pentangle, or reflected in the work of early Paul Simon (covering Anji) or Jimmy Page (appropriating Black Waterside), his influence was enormous. Sparkling fingerwork, an authentic vocal sound, and brilliant, eclectic compositions make this a must-have CD for anyone who wants to know about the roots of the late 20th century popular acoustic guitar sound. If only we could get rid of those drums....without them this would be a 5 star album.

The performances here are typical rough-edged Jansch, and I don't mind that at all. The production is another matter. On some selections the vocal is forward, on others the guitar, and on still others, the drums. And one or two feature what sounds very much like a tape stretch, odd for a cd, but perhaps not so odd considering what the source of these selections may have been. Great Bert; disappointing sound.