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Wizz Jones
WIZZ JONES Huldenberg Blues Sunbeam SBRCD5085
Wizz Jones really is extraordinary. Along with Davey Graham he was one of the pio- neering English acous-
tic guitar wizards of the 1960s, influencing that whole Jansch/ Renbourn/ Carthy genera- tion and beyond (yes, people like Eric Clap- ton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Rod Stewart too, by all accounts). By the end of that decade he’d crystallised his unmistake- able style – fingerpicking powered by a stur- dy, bouncing Big Bill Broonzy thumb or a driv- ing flatpicking inspired at the knees of Ram- blin’ Jack Elliott & Derroll Adams in the late 1950s. And the remarkable thing is that he’s still playing with as much fire these days at the age of 72, his youthful voice on this album almost unchanged from four or five decades ago. If he’d made this album at any point in the last 40-plus years it would have sounded just as good. I can’t think of any- body else remotely like him.
Recorded live at a private gathering in Huldenberg, Brussels in 2006 (actually the audio from a video made of the evening, though the sparkling, intimate sound quality wouldn’t tell you that), this is almost the per- fect introduction for newcomers to the leg- endary him, but will be treasured by long- term fans too. Those there on the night were clearly having an appreciative ball – at one point there’s the unmistakeable sound of a Dave Evans heckle!
As the album title hints, it’s got a focus on his Anglicised blues (Broonzy’s Hey Hey and Blind Lemon’s Shuckin’ Sugar, Mississippi John Hurt’s Got The Blues Can’t Be Satisfied,
Blind Willie Johnson’s Keep Your Lamp Trimmed & Burning, Blind Boy Fuller’s Corinne – as heard on this issue’s fRoots 38 album). But it also has a good sampling of his characterful reworkings of songs by others like Ewan MacColl, his ‘personal songwriter’ Alan Tunbridge (National Seven, See How The Time Is Flying and the criminally ignored Massacre At Beziers which ought to be much more widely taken up) and just one of his own, the moving Burma Star about his dad. Wizz writes rarely, but when he does they’re invariably killers.
Why Wizz Jones isn’t an international folk hero and recipient of all the Lifetime Achievement Awards going is almost impossi- ble to fathom, other than because of his modest self-effacing nature. Word from the powers that be at Radio 2 is that he won’t ever get one because he isn’t a household name. Well, play the arse off this record and make him one then – on this form, there’s no excuse at all. Let’s hear it for old four-eyes!
www.sunbeamrecords.com Ian Anderson VARIOUS ARTISTS
Opika Pende: Africa At 78 RPM Dust-To Digital DTD-22
…I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces Dust-To-Digital DTD-20 Baby How Can It Be? Dust-To-Digital DTD-16
The wish-fulfilment doomsayers are out there pronouncing the imminent death of the physical record again. Clearly nobody has told Dust-To-Digital, who carry the ‘if you’re going to do something, do it properly’ philos- ophy to mind-boggling extremes. And clearly
Unknown musician, traces obliterated…
nobody has told their delighted customers either, since the label is able to keep putting ‘em out in ever-increasing glory.
If there’s been a more deserving winner of our Critics’ Poll ‘Best Packaged Album’ cat- egory, then I can’t think of it. Opika Pende comes in a 15 x 20cm red cloth-bound slip- case, and in it you’ll find a sturdy double gatefold casing for the four CDs, and a beau - ti fully printed 112-page paperback book on art paper. The latter is full of historic photos, vintage artwork and phono-memorabilia, plus in-depth notes on every single one of the 100 tracks included. If you’ve ever come across the remarkable Excavated Shellac web site, you’ll know what to expect in terms of fascinating commentary by co-compiler Jonathan Ward. Frankly, if you’re the slight- est bit interested in roots music from around the world, you’d want a copy on sight, regardless, before you even heard the music. But then you’re into icing: most of the 78s have never been re-issued before, the quality of transfers to digital is superb, and the music itself – recorded from 1909 right up until the 1960s – is fabulous. There are so many gems that it’s pointless even to begin listing them, and chances are that the names of the artists won’t mean anything to you anyway: I could write an essay listing numerous discoveries and highlights but the book does that for you. Unreservedly recommended.
So if you thought that one was an irre- sistible artefact, wait until you see …I Listen To The Wind That Obliterates My Traces: Music In Vernacular Photographs 1880 – 1955. This one’s a 184-page 17 x 22cm hardback book with a CD in each cover and, apart from a literary essay by compiler/ collector Steve Roden, it is indeed full of vintage, vernacular photographs of musicians and record playing
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