Guitar hero Bert Jansch, legendary influence on many, dead at 67

wfgodot

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A beautiful player.

Here are bits of two obits, the first from the Telegraph - which includes video of Bert Jansch doing a stunning version of the song 'Black Waterside' - and the second from the Guardian:

Bert Jansch, guitar wizard, dies aged 67
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Jansch's complex, revolutionary and beautiful acoustic guitar-playing influenced countless musicians including Johnny Marr, who said: "He completely re-invented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today."
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His final performance was at a reunion of Pentangle at London's Royal Festival Hall on 1st August, following solo performances earlier this year when he opened for Canadian singer Neil Young.
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Jimmy Page said: "At one point, I was absolutely obsessed with Bert Jansch. When I first heard that first LP of his in 1965, I couldn’t believe it. It was so far ahead of what everyone else was doing. No one in America could touch that."
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Marr said,“He completely re-invented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today - without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s would have been very different. You hear him in Nick Drake, Pete Townshend, Donovan, The Beatles, Jimmy Page and Neil Young. There are people playing guitar who don’t even realise they’ve been influenced by him one step removed."
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and...

Bert Jansch, innovative, influential guitarist and founder member of the groundbreaking folk band Pentangle
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Robin Denselow writes: Bert Jansch was that rarity, a musician who really did deserve to be regarded as a legend, and who retained that status throughout his career. He was an extraordinary guitarist and a thoughtful songwriter, and generations of would-be pickers sat at his concerts watching his fingerwork with envy and astonishment.

He was influenced by traditional songs, blues and the "folk-baroque" of Davy Graham, but his distinctive style always allowed him to take chances and work with different musicians. When I first met him, as a student journalist in the 1960s, he was outselling Bob Dylan in the folk shops along the Charing Cross Road, and told me: "I'm not recording for anyone, just myself."

Years later, visiting him at his garden flat in Kilburn, it always struck me how little he had changed – he was still a tousled-haired figure with a slight mumble and quiet sense of humour, happiest when picking up a guitar and discussing music.
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much more at links above
 
[video=youtube;hkX7Q2J7k48]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkX7Q2J7k48[/video]
 

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