BIGGER STRINGS: DANNY THOMPSON

Well, strings don't  come much bigger than Victoria. Who she? Victoria is the stand-up bass guitar Danny Thompson bought for a fiver (£5) in around 1954, when he was fifteen. And who Danny Thompson? Shame on you for asking, but I guess not all tastes are as rarified as mine. Sir Danny of Thompson, as he has yet become officially recognised as, an MBE having to suffice, is the fella who has gone as far as most in making stand-up bass other than an old fogey associated item. If you are familiar with Pentangle, Nick Drake, John Martyn and Richard Thompson, the chances are that you are familiar with his work. If you have watched the Transatlantic Sessions, live or on TV, the chances are that you have seen him, an avuncular presence, holding all the virtuosi musicians also featured in check, more that likely with a beatific beam on his face, itself usually under a hat of some intrinsic coolness.

With Martin Simpson, 2014

I used to hate the double bass, it encompassing everything old and fuddy-duddy of the pre-rock era. All these bloody b&w jazzers, with the bass perpetually walking up and down in the background, whilst the usual focus of attention showed off in the foreground, besuited drummers tip-tapping away politely alongside. Sometimes they crossed over into my awareness, notably in the Seekers, my father's favourite band, courtesy the comely charms of Judith Durham. They could always be relied upon to turn up on BBC Saturday night variety shows, I finding the grinning buffoon on bass an offence to my pre-pubertal sensitivities. (Apologies thus due, now, to Athol Guy, the player in question, even if I have not the heart to go back and actually check out his playing.) This prejudice took forever, a bit like trumpet, to rid, but, boy, when I did....

With Richard Thompson, 2001

Thompson was the man from the start, even if I was slow to get up to speed. As an RT freak, it was when he first started appearing alongside Richard, his Thompson 'twin', that I got up to speed. You know how it is, when you sometimes 'get' something, the scales fall from your eyes like roof tiles in a hurricane. Suddenly I was hoovering up John Martyn and, even, if a bit later, Nick Drake. (His vocals still alienated for longer than I care admit.) Suddenly big ol' bass was cool, she even when one Gordon Sumner came on board, I was already, o yes, on message.

So, Daniel Henry Edward Thompson..... Like the recently deceased Charlie Watts, he too was an alumnus of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, taking over bass duties from Jack Bruce. Following that four year period, 1664-7, he became a member of Pentangle, that undersung folk-jazz hybrid, ploughing their idiosyncratic acoustic vibe at the same time as Fairport and Steeleye were inventing an electric folk tradition. He and Terry Cox, drums, both crossed the then gulf between traditions, joining nominal folkies Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, with the consummate purity of Jacqui McShee on vocals. 

With Pentangle, 1972

The John Martyn years, which followed, were as famous for their onstage "dynamic" as for the often mercurial music, both not averse to the occasional pre-, per- and post-stage snifter. Thompson was able to take a longer view, and withdrew. Martyn, sadly not, his death as much to do with the ravages of alcohol as anything else, if sober at the time of his death. 

With John Martyn, 1977

A solo career beckoned, or at least as bandleader, his band, 'Whatever' a sonic free for all, genre-wise, with some astonishing material. When this expanded to into an even wider ubiquity, as 'Songhai', featuring flamenco purists, Ketama, alongside Malian kora maestro, Toumani Diabaté, any sense of categorisation became redundant.

Songhai, 1988

Round about the same time he hooked up with kindred spirit, Richard Thompson: each had embraces Islam, possibly, in part, as an escape from the hedonism of the musical life. For several years he was the right hand man to his namesake, whether in a band format or as a duo. An interesting memento of that time comes with 1997's 'Industry', a joint production, encompassing both the songs of RT and the music of Whatever. It's a worthwhile listen.

Industry, 1997

A jovial presence, he was also getting work as an amiable onstage presence at Fairport Convention's Cropredy Festivals, as host and master of ceremonies. I remember my horror, I think in 1998, as it was announced from the stage that Thompson had sustained a stroke. The audience were invited to sing Danny Boy, so that, by phone, he could hear their well wishes. I thought that the end, but he made a decent recovery and was soon playing again, seemingly as well as ever. The couple of times I caught the Transatlantic Sessions tours, in the early 20 teens, he was terrific, the cheer for him, when introduced, as big as for any of the other performers. Grab a look at his website for a list of records he has appeared on, a ridiculously large roster, encompassing jazz, folk, blues, world, everything, including a number of surprises. Did you know he played on Cliff Richards' Eurovison winner, 'Congratulations'? Or with artists as diverse as T.Rex, Kate Bush and David Sylvian, let alone most of Donovan's recordings. Not bad for an old jazzer!

Transatlantic Sessions, 2016

Back with RT, 2019

Here's rather a good interview, from only a year or so ago.

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In Memoriam: Bert Jansch

Pentangle: Sweet Child

[purchase]

Bert Jansch: Angie

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Most of the time, Bert Jansch is described as a British folk musician. Fair enough, since many of the songs he performed were from the British folk cannon. But Jansch’s first inspiration was the American blues musician Big Bill Broonzy. Broonzy started out playing for dancers in juke joints, so he had to lay down a solid beat. But, on top of that beat, Broonzy had a gift for improvising. He could get that beat so solid that you could still feel it, even when Broonzy wasn’t playing it during a solo. Bert Jansch learned his lessons well, and always provided rock solid rhythm for the group Pentangle, while John Renbourn took the flashy solos. In Pentangle, Jansch also played the intricate finger-picked rhythm lines that are a feature of tradition British folk, and the group added rock, jazz, and even Indian influences. As you can hear on Sweet Child, Jansch could handle it all beautifully. But, as a solo artist, Jansch often looked back to the blues, albeit with a British accent. His performance of Angie is a fine example of this. There is that solid beat, but the freedom of the solos is also very much there. Jansch did not play by the musical rules, which is a fine definition of creativity. But he always gave the song what it needed. He won’t be laying down that solid beat any more, but I can still feel it.

Cold: Rain and Snow

Pentangle: Rain and Snow

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Like many old blues songs, "Rain and Snow" (more commonly known as "Cold Rain and Snow) seems to be an amalgam of several old folk songs. I have fourteen version of this song of marital woe by the Grateful Dead alone, but this version by British folk-rockers Pentangle remains my favorite. It comes from their 1971 album Reflection, where the band members were really expanding their influences. This song alone features both banjo and sitar (provided by the band's guitarists, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, respectively), and it's that seemingly unlikely combination that makes it stand out for me.

Adjective Noun: Cruel Sister

Pentangle: Cruel Sister

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Cruel Sister is the title track from my favorite album by Pentangle. Pentangle was a British folk super-group, if you will, consisting of Jacqui McShee, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Danny Cox, and Danny Thompson. I hope some of those names are familiar; if like this song and these names are all new to you, you will find further exploration very rewarding.

The song Cruel Sister is a variant of the Child Ballad Twa Sisters. In their arrangement, Pentangle used the melody of a different Child Ballad, Riddles Wisely Expounded, and they also borrowed the mysterious refrain, “Lay the bend to the bonny broom” from the latter song. In my researching of the song, I found that this borrowing really bothers some folk purists. But I find it to be an amazing linkage.

Twa Sisters tells the tale of two sisters, one dark and one fair, who are wooed by the same man. He must woo the dark sister because she is the oldest and stands to inherit from her noble parents, but it is the younger, fair sister he truly loves. The dark one gets her younger sister to walk with her by the sea, and drowns her. She then proceeds to marry the young man. Meanwhile, a pair of minstrels come upon the fair sister’s remains, and fashion a harp from her breastbone. they then play the new harp at the dark sister’s wedding. When the minstrels stop playing, the harp plays itself, and the fair sister’s voice sings the whole story. In some versions, but not in Pentangle’s, the harp is broken in half and the fair sister returns to life and at last claims her love.

Riddles Wisely Expounded, also tells of two sisters, fair and dark, who are rivals for the same man. In this song, the light sister wins the man by winning a riddling contest. The song has been interpreted as involving a deal with the Devil, or a spell against the Devil.

So what about “lay the bend to the bonny broom”? Broom is a plant which is variously regarded as protection against witches or as essential to a witches spells. Bend is a variant form of bent, which was once a term for the horn of an animal,(or perhaps, of the Devil?) The repetition of the phrase suggests an incantation or spell.

In British folklore, it often happens that a magical tale such as this has its origins in pre-Christian times. Alternate versions of Twa Sisters can be found in the Nordic countries and in Iceland. So the root tale was probably brought to the British Isles by the Norse. The motif of the dark sister and the light is often part of a seasonal myth, where the sisters represent the dark and light halves of the year.

So there may be much to Cruel Sister than one would expect. I would welcome anyone’s further thoughts on this in the comments.