PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
Manouche Maestro
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Manouche Maestro |
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Davy Graham 1940-2008
Graham was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire to
a Guyanese mother and a Scottish father. Although he never had any music theory
lessons he learnt to play the piano and harmonica as a child and then took up
the classical guitar at the age of 12. As a teenager he was strongly
influenced by the folk guitar player Steve Benbow who had
travelled widely with the army and played a guitar style influenced by Morrocan
music All of Me 1981 Davy Graham performing at the Troubadour with Louis Killen - Alison Chapman McLean It was not in Graham's nature to pursue fame and fortune and he retired to relative obscurity for many years, when he engaged in charity work and teaching as well as protracted periods of drug use, before beginning to tour again in the years before his death. His childlike, almost obsessive, enthusiasm for music never left him, however, and he would gladly give a free private concert to any chance acquaintance. I started to play the guitar about seven years ago, while I was still at school- homework always gave in to music, so I was no genius! As soon as I got home, I would put on a blues record- Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Slim, Champion Jack Dupree and Muddy Waters and many others as well as modern jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Charlie Mingus and Thelonious Monk, who are still my favourites. (Moanin ... Link) When I got tired of the city and
a job suffocating in an office, I went to Paris and sang and played in
the streets to cinema queues and up and down the French Riviera. I must admit I
was very glad when I was invited to play in night clubs where I could put down
the plectrum and play finger style as I still do. Every summer for three years I
would break the chains of a job (anything from librarian to crate-humper) and
leave for the continent, taking £5– the fare to Paris, freedom and the
sun of the Cote d’Azur. When I came back to England in the winter of 1961, I
started to get more regular work playing in folk song clubs, and got my first
“break” playing as accompanist along with Alexis Korner for Shirley Abicair, the
Australian folk singer on broadcasts for radio, a TV series and a concert at the
Royal Festival Hall. Davy Graham and Diz Disley Diz performed funny songs like “Rex, the Piddling Pup”, “With ’er ’ead Tucked Underneath ’er Arm” and other silly George Formby tunes, to the delight of those folk club audiences. But Diz wowed people with amazing Django pieces too, playing swing tunes effortlessly and with great style. He was a force to be reckoned with. It’s no surprise that Paul Simon, who had spent a year or so in London in the mid-sixties, wrote about Diz in a song on his first hit album. The song is “A Simple Desultory Philippic”, in which Paul writes, “I’ve been Walt Disneyed, Diz Disleyed, Rolling Stoned and Beatled til I’m blind...” It’s the same album on which Paul recorded (and brought to international prominence) Davy Graham’s perennial pickers’ anthem, “Anji.” At the age of 19 Graham wrote what is probably his most famous composition, the acoustic guitar solo "Angi" (sometimes spelled "Anji": see below). His biographer Colin Harper credits Graham with single-handledly inventing the concept of the folk guitar instrumental. At the time (1964 ish), to be able to play "Anji" was a mark of considerable skill, and many guitarists developed their own versions, mostly fast furious and complicated, whereas Davy’s original was relatively simple, but dark and moody. He described it as a "work song” rather than a blues. To my mind, it is still far and away the best. (Anji Link)
Davy Graham was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008 and died on 15 December 2008. He is survived by his two daughters, Mercy and Kim |
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Steve
Benbow
