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Davy Graham was a young and promising guitarist when he was discovered in
London by blues patriarch Alexis Korner.
Soon, he establish himself as the most original guitarist around, the only
one who could wed folk, blues and jazz.
On his first EP (1962) he played She Moves Through the Fair as if it
were an Indian raga: only Sandy Bull in the USA was
bolder than Graham.
(In that song Graham introduced the DADGAD tuning instead of the usual EADGBE tuning).
Guitar Player (Pye, 1963) contains his most famous song,
Angie, that was originally on a 1962 EP credited to Alexis Korner and
that established his reputation.
Folk Roots New Routes (Decca, 1964),
a collaboration with vocalist Shirley Collins,
marked a bold departure for the
folk movement, as Collins embraced jazz.
Folk Blues and Beyond (Decca, 1965 - Les Cousins, 2008),
featuring bassist Danny Thompson, ran the gamut from folk to blues
to jazz. It also winked at Indian (Leaving Blues) and
Arabic (Maajun) music.
More experimental albums followed: Large As Life (Decca, 1968 - Les Cousins, 2008), his creative peak (Sunshine Raga, Blues Raga) featuring Pentangle's bassist Danny Thompson,
Colosseum's drummer Jon Hiseman and Colosseum's saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith,
and Hat (Decca, 1969 - Les Cousins, 2008), a collection of shorter pieces.
When rock musicians embraced folk and bands like
Pentangle began plundering his
pioneering ideas, Graham was largely forgotten.
He was given no credit for raga-rock and world-music, that he had helped
launch.
He came back in the second half of the 1970s with a bunch of instrumental
albums, the best being Dance For Two People (Kicking Mule, 1979), where
he plays oud, sarod and bouzouki besides guitars.
Fire In The Soul is an anthology of his best albums.
Graham died in december 2008 at 68 of lung cancer.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da Jacopo DeBenedictis)
Davy Graham era un giovane e promettente chitarrista quando fu scoperto a Londra dal patriarca del blues Alexis Korner. In breve si affermò come il chitarrista più originale sulla piazza, l'unico
che sapesse fondere folk, blues e jazz. Nel suo primo EP (1963) suonò She Moves Through the Fair come se fosse un raga indiano: solo Sandy Bull negli Stati Uniti era più audace di Graham.
Guitar Player Plus (Pye, 1963) contiene la sua canzone più famosa, Angie, che originariamente era in un EP del 1962 accreditato ad Alexis Korner, e questo consolidò la sua reputazione. Folk Roots New Routes (Decca, 1964), una collaborazione con la vocalist Shirley Collins, sancì un'audace svolta per il movimento folk grazie alla forte influenza jazzistica della Collins.
Folk Blues and Beyond (Decca, 1965), realizzato in collaborazione col bassista Danny Thompson, attraversò tutta la gamma dal folk, al blues, al jazz, strizzando l'occhio alla musica indiana
(Leaving Blues) e mediorientale (Maajun). Seguirono altri album più sperimentali: Large As Life e Hat (entrambi Decca).
Quando i musicisti rock abbracciarono il folk e gruppi come i Pentangle iniziarono a sfruttare le sue idee pionieristiche, Graham fu presto dimenticato. Non gli fu riconosciuto alcun merito
per aver contribuito a lanciare il raga-rock e la world-music.
Tornò ad incidere nella seconda metà dei '70 con qualche album strumentale, il migliore dei quali Dance For Two People (Kicking Mule, 1979), in cui oltre alla chitarra suona l'oud, il sarod e il
Bouzouki.
Fire In The Soul è un'antologia dei suoi migliori album.
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