John Martyn
Live At Leeds

THE REVIEW

There are those who discovered him with the watershed "Solid Air". Those who were dazzled by the simplicity of "Bless the Weather". Those who prefer the later productions, combining electronics and nods to the past. Even some who perhaps can't resist the pop charm of "One World". There's much to discuss, and everyone would have their reasoning.

This work is instead a sort of hidden treasure: whether many or few listened to it doesn't make a difference. Certainly, at the time, not many were fortunate enough; printed in ten thousand copies and sold door-to-door by Martyn himself, who knows, maybe it could have been confused (or passed off?) for the namesake from a few years prior. Anyway, here inside is probably the best of the Anglo-Scottish guitarist: recorded at the University of Leeds in February '75, it's a sort of compendium of Martyn's art produced up to that point. It was inevitable then that the happiest period would be favored, roughly from '70 onwards: in the repertoire, fantastic versions of Solid Air, I’d Rather Be the Devil, Make No Mistake, dense, expanded, dreamed, and dreamlike, played with a feeling that had become the guitarist's trademark. And then, a scorching version of Outside In opens the album and acts as a calling card, the guitar battered in a volcano boiling under Martyn's blows – now slaps, now gentle caresses. The spectacular interplay among the musicians is surprising, particularly between Martyn and Danny Thompson’s double bass (acrobatic in Make No Mistake), a second voice and ideal continuation of the guitarist. Martyn's voice surprises once again, which with this record carves out a place among the best interpreters of the '70s: now very rough, now tissue-thin, the artist has now acquired the ability to modulate the vocal instrument according to his needs. The trio formation strips the sound to the bone, further highlighting the musicians' personal characteristics.

In many folds of the pieces, some might perhaps recognize the influence of bands that had made the expanded sound their banner (the kraut masters up to the Pink Floyd), but the fact is that over the years John Martyn acquired a sound that is uniquely his own: made of a very distinctive voice, of a gadget – the Echoplex – of which he could calmly claim the right of ius primae noctis, and even of a monstrous technique, combined moreover with taste and knowledge of tradition. A pillar of his time.

Last mention for a guitarist who appears in a few tracks but actively participated in the concerts of that tour. Paul Kossoff had just been dismissed by Free, and his friend lent him a hand to help him out of his long tunnel. His dry and fluid line, seen in Outside In and the concluding Clutches and Mailman, once again confirms his very personal touch, although here the flashes that illuminated his Free companions are rarely seen.

PS the 2006 reissue, curated by Snapper, adds another CD with various live performances from the late seventies to the end of the nineties, albeit not well-documented and not of high value; that's why I preferred to focus on the original album here.