Pentangle (band)

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Pentangle
Pentangle performing at the 2007 BBC Folk Awards
Pentangle performing at the 2007 BBC Folk Awards
Background information
Origin Britain
Genre(s) Folk rock, Jazz-folk
Years active 1968–1973 and 2007 (original band)
1981–2006 (various incarnations)
Label(s) Transatlantic
Warner Bros. Records/Reprise Records
Associated acts Jacqui McShee's Pentangle
Members
Terry Cox
Bert Jansch
Jacqui McShee
John Renbourn
Danny Thompson
Former members
Mike Piggott
Nigel Portman Smith
Peter Kirtley
Gerry Conway
Spencer Cozens
Jerry Underwood
Alan Thomson
Gary Foote

Pentangle is a British folk rock (or folk-jazz) band. The original band was active in the late 1960s and early 1970s; its successor has been active since the early 1980s. The original line-up, which was unchanged throughout the band's first incarnation (1967-1973), was: Jacqui McShee, vocals; John Renbourn, guitar; Bert Jansch, guitar; Danny Thompson, double bass; and Terry Cox, drums.

The name Pentangle was chosen to represent the five members of the band, but the pentagram symbol also has a number of mystical associations and is the device on Sir Gawain's shield in the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which held a fascination for Renbourn.[1]

In 2007, the original members of the band were reunited to receive a Lifetime Achievement award at in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and to record a short concert that was broadcast on BBC radio. In January 2008, a twelve date UK tour featuring all five original members was announced.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Formation of the original line-up

The original group formed in 1967. Renbourn and Jansch were already popular musicians on the British folk scene, with several solo albums each and a duet LP, Bert And John. Their use of complex inter-dependent, guitar parts, referred to as "folk baroque", had become a distinctive characteristic of their music and was featured on Bert and John and in some of the duet tracks on Jansch's Jack Orion album. They also shared a house in St John's Wood, London.[2]

Jacqui McShee had begun as an (unpaid) "floor singer" in several of the London folk clubs, and then, by 1965, ran a folk club at the Red Lion in Sutton, Surrey, establishing a friendship with Jansch and Renbourn when they played there. She sang on Renbourn's Another Monday album and performed with him as a duo, debuting at Les Cousins club in August 1966.[3]

Thompson and Cox were already well-known as jazz musicians and had played together in Alexis Korner's band. By 1966, they were both part of Duffy Power's Nucleus (a band which also included John McLaughlin on electric guitar). Thompson was well known to Renbourn through appearances at Les Cousins and working with him on a project for television.[4]

In 1967, the Scottish entrepreneur, Bruce Dunnett, who had recently organised a tour for Jansch, set up a Sunday night club for him and Renbourn at the (now defunct) Horseshoe Hotel in Tottenham Court Road.[5] McShee began to join them as a vocalist and, by March of that year, Thompson and Cox were being billed as part of the band. Renbourn claims to be the "catalyst" that brought the band together but credits Jansch with the idea "to get the band to play in a regular place, to knock it into shape".[6]

Although nominally a 'folk' group, the members each shared catholic tastes and influences. McShee had a grounding in traditional music, Cox and Thompson a love of jazz, Renbourn a growing interest in early music and Jansch a taste for blues and contemporaries such as Bob Dylan.

[edit] Commercial success

Basket of Light: Pentangle's most commercially successful album
Basket of Light: Pentangle's most commercially successful album

The first public concert by Pentangle was a sell-out performance at the Royal Festival Hall, on 27 May 1967. Later that year, they undertook a short tour of Denmark — in which they were disastrously billed as a rock'n'roll band — and a short UK tour, organised by Nathan Joseph of Transatlantic Records. By this stage, their association with Bruce Dunnett had ended and, early in 1968, they acquired Jo Lustig as a manager. With his influence, they graduated from clubs to concert halls and from then on, as Colin Harper puts it, "the ramshackle, happy-go-lucky progress of the Pentangle was going to be a streamlined machine of purpose and efficiency".[7]

Pentangle signed up with Transatlantic Records and their eponymous debut LP was released in May 1968. This all-acoustic album was produced by Shel Talmy who has claimed to have employed an innovative approach to recording acoustic guitars to deliver a very bright "bell-like" sound.[8] On 29 June of that year they performed at London's Royal Albert Hall. Recordings from that concert formed part of their second album, Sweet Child (released in November 1968), a double LP comprising live and studio recordings. Showcasing the group's eclectic approach (and Jansch's growing songwriting ability), it is generally regarded as their creative high point.[9]

Basket Of Light, which followed in mid 1969, was their greatest commercial success, thanks to a surprise hit single, Light Flight which became popular through its use as theme music for a TV drama series Take Three Girls (the BBC's first drama series to be broadcast in colour) for which the band also provided incidental music.[10] By 1970, they were at the peak of their popularity, recording a soundtrack for the film Tam Lin, making at least 12 television appearances, and undertaking tours of the UK (including the Isle of Wight Festival) and America (including a concert at the Carnegie Hall).[11] However, their fourth album, Cruel Sister, released in October 1970, was a commercial disaster.[12] This was an album of traditional songs that included a 20-minute long version of Jack Orion, a song that Jansch and Renbourn had recorded previously as a duo.

[edit] Decline

Solomon's Seal: The final album of the original Pentangle line-up
Solomon's Seal: The final album of the original Pentangle line-up

The band returned to a mix of traditional and original material on Reflection, recorded in March 1971. This was received positively, but without great enthusiasm, by the music press.[13] By this time, the strains of touring and of working together as a band were readily apparent. Bill Leader, who produced the album is quoted as saying "It seems to me, in retrospect, that each day a different member of the group had decided that this was it: 'Sod this for a game of soldiers, I'm leaving the group!'"[14] Pentangle withdrew from Transatlantic, in a bitter dispute with Joseph, regarding royalties. Transatlantic had apparently concluded that they were within their contractual rights to withhold royalty payments from the Pentangle albums.[15] Joseph pointed out that his company had covered all the costs, such as recording costs, entailed in making the albums.[16] Jo Lustig, their manager, who had agreed to the Transatlantic contract, made it clear that their contract with him included a clause that they could not sue him "for anything under any circumstances."[17] Hence, in order to make some money out of the work they were doing, Pentangle established their own music publishing company, Swiggeroux Music in 1971.

The final album of the original Pentangle was Solomon's Seal released by Warner Brothers/Reprise in 1972. Colin Harper describes it as "a record of people's weariness, but also the product of a unit that whose members were still among the best players, writers and musical interpreters of their day".[18] Its release was accompanied by a UK tour, in which Pentangle were supported by Wizz Jones and Clive Palmer's band COB. The last few dates of the tour had to be cancelled owing to Thompson becoming ill.

On New Year's Day, 1973, Jansch decided to leave the band: "Pentangle Split" was the front page headline of the first issue of Melody Maker in 1973.[19]

[edit] Subsequent incarnations

In the early 1980s, a reunion of the band was planned. By this time, Jansch and Renbourn had re-established their solo careers, McShee had a young family, Thompson was mainly doing session work and Cox was running a restaurant in Minorca. The re-formed Pentangle debuted at the 1982 Cambridge Folk Festival, but lacking a drummer, as Cox had broken his leg in a road accident. They completed a tour of Italy, Australia and some venues in Germany, with Cox initially playing in a wheelchair.[20]

Renbourn left the band to pursue a long-term ambition of studying classical music, taking up a place at Dartington College of Arts. There then followed a series of personnel changes, including Mike Piggott on violin, Nigel Portman Smith on keyboards and bass, and Peter Kirtley on guitars and vocals, with McShee and Jansch finally remaining as the only members from the original line-up. Gerry Conway (who had worked with Fotheringay, Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull, Richard Thompson and John Martyn) took over on drums and percussion in 1987. The incarnation consisting of Jansch, McShee, Portman Smith, Kirtley and Conway survived almost as long as the original Pentangle and recorded three albums: Think of Tomorrow, One More Road and Live 1994. This line-up completed their final tour in March–April 1995, after which Jansch left to pursue his solo work: particularly his residency at the 12 Bar Club in London's Denmark Street.[21]

[edit] Jacqui McShee's Pentangle

In 1995, McShee formed a trio with Conway on percussion and Spencer Cozens on keyboards. The trio's first album, About Thyme, featured guests Ralph McTell, Albert Lee, Mike Mainieri, and John Martyn. The album reached the top of fROOTS magazine's British folk chart. The album was released on their own label - GJS (Gerry Jacqui Spencer). With the addition of saxophonist Jerry Underwood and bassist/guitarist Alan Thomson, the band was renamed (with the agreement of the original Pentangle members) Jacqui McShee's Pentangle. The new five-piece band's first album Passe Avante was released on the Park Records label. In 2005, they released Feoffees' Lands, (a feoffee is a medieval term for a trustee) on GJS.

The new line-up played regularly on the live circuit. Their concert at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was recorded and released by Park Records under the title At the Little Theatre. The album highlights the improvisational virtuosity of the band and its melding of jazz and folk influences.

In August 2002, saxophonist Jerry Underwood died after an illness. His place was taken by flautist/saxophonist Gary Foote[22] in 2004. Jacqui McShee's Pentangle was still touring regularly in 2006.[23]

[edit] Continued interest in the original band

The 1968-1972 Lost Broadcasts album
The 1968-1972 Lost Broadcasts album

Whilst the new Pentangle incarnations and personnel changes took the band in various musical directions, interest in the original Pentangle line-up and its distinct fusion of musical styles continued, with at least a dozen compilation albums being released between 1972 and 2001.

In 2004, the 1968-1972 Lost Broadcasts album was released. Jo Lustig's influence had secured numerous radio appearances for the band—at least eleven broadcasts by the BBC in 1968, for example.[24] The album was a 2-CD compilation of recordings from these sessions. It includes a full-band version of Terry Cox's solo song "Moondog" and a recording of "The Name of the Game" which had been used by the BBC as a theme song for some of the Pentangle broadcasts but had never appeared on record.

In 2007 The Time Has Come 1967 - 1973 was issued. It was a 4-CD collection of rarities, out-takes and live performances. The liner notes were by Colin Harper and Pete Paphides.

The band appeared on the BBC TV music programme Later..with Jools Holland on 29th April 2008, with 'Let No Man Steal Your Thyme', and on 2nd May 2008, performing 'Light Flight' and 'I've Got a Feeling'.

[edit] Style

Pentangle are usually characterised as a folk-rock band: however, this designation is misleading. Danny Thompson preferred to describe the group as a "folk-jazz band".[25] John Renbourn refuted the "folk-rock" categorisation, saying "one of the worst things you can do to a folk song is inflict a rock beat on it...Most of the old songs that I have heard have their own internal rhythm. When we worked on those in the group, Terry Cox worked out his percussion patterns to match the patterns in the songs exactly. In that respect he was the opposite of a folk-rock drummer."[26] The practice of following the internal rhythms of a song is very characteristic of the sound of the original Pentangle and is apparent throughout their work: for instance, it is equally apparent in "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" (the first track of their first album) and "Jump Baby Jump" (the penultimate track from the final album). This approach to songs led to the use of unusual time signatures: "Market Song" from Sweet Child moves from 7/4 to 11/4 and 4/4 time[27] and "Light Flight" from Basket of Light includes sections in 5/8, 7/8 and 6/4.[28] However, the changes appear natural, in the context of the songs and not forced for effect.[29]

Henry Raynor, writing in The Times struggled to characterise their music: "It is not a pop group, not a folk group and not a jazz group, but what it attempts is music which is a synthesis of all these and other styles as well as interesting experiments in each of them individually."[30] Even Pentangle's earliest work is characterised by that synthesis of styles: songs such as "Bruton Town" and "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" from the 1968 The Pentangle album include elements of folk, jazz, blues and early music. At the time that the album was released, apart from Davey Graham's pioneering work,[31] there was almost nothing comparable to Pentangle's fusion of styles with, for example, Pete Townshend describing it as "fresh and innovative".[32] However, by the release of their fourth album, Cruel Sister, in 1970, Pentangle had moved more towards traditional folk music, and towards the use of the electric guitar as an instrument. By this time, folk music had itself moved towards rock and the use of electric instruments, so Cruel Sister invited comparison with, for example, Fairport Convention's Liege and Lief[33] and Steeleye Span's Hark! The Village Wait.[34] Pentangle is thus often credited as one of the progenitors of the electric folk style, even though their most well-known album is recorded entirely with acoustic instruments.

In their final two albums, the original Pentangle returned closer to their folk-jazz origins but by then, the predominant musical taste had moved to electric folk-rock.[35] Colin Harper sums things up by saying that Pentangle's "increasingly fragile music was on borrowed time and everyone knew it".[36]

[edit] Awards

In January 2007, the five original members of Pentangle were given a Lifetime Achievement award at in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The award was presented by Sir David Attenborough. Producer John Leonard said "Pentangle were one of the most influential groups of the late 20th century and it would be wrong for the awards not to recognise what an impact they had on the music scene." Pentangle played together for the event, for the first time in over 20 years. Their performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Wednesday 7 February 2007.[37]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

  • Travellin' Song/Mirage (1968) GB S BigT B1G109
  • Let No Man Steal Your Thyme/ Way Behind The Sun (1968) (Reprise 0784)
  • Once I Had A Sweetheart/ I Saw an Angel (1969) Transatlantic BIG124 UK #46
  • Light Flight/Cold Mountain (1970) Transatlantic BIG128 UK #43
  • Light Flight/Cold Mountain (1970) UK #45 - re-entry
  • Play the Game/ Saturday Movie (1986) UK Making Waves SURF 107
  • Set Me Free/ Come To Me Easy (1986) UK Making Waves SURF 121

[edit] Compilations

[edit] DVDs

  • Pentangle - Captured Live 2003
  • Jacqui McShee - Pentangle In Concert 2007
  • Folk Rock Legends (Steeleye Span and Pentangle) 2003

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stone, Brian (translator) (1974). Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Penguin Classics, p.147. ISBN 0-1404-4092-5. 
  2. ^ Harper, Colin (2006). Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival (2006 edition). Bloomsbury, p.196. ISBN 0-7475-8725-6. 
  3. ^ Harper pp.205–206
  4. ^ Harper p.206
  5. ^ Dead Pub Society website. Retrieved on 2007-01-10.
  6. ^ Harper p.207
  7. ^ Harper p.215
  8. ^ Shel Talmy interviewed by Richie Unterberger
  9. ^ Harper, Colin (2006). Dazzling Stranger: Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival (paperback edn.). Bloomsbury, p.220. ISBN 0-7475-8725-6.  "At this point [the Festival Hall concert] the five members of the group were at their live peak, complementing and collaborating with each other in various combinations....The balance between the constituent parts, onstage at least, would never again be so perfect."
  10. ^ Guinness Book of British Hit Singles 7th Edition - 1988
  11. ^ Harper p.224
  12. ^ Harper p.228
  13. ^ Melody Maker stated "Pentangle beat the boredom barrier".
  14. ^ Harper p.229
  15. ^ Ref. Harper p.235
  16. ^ Harper p.235
  17. ^ Harper p.236
  18. ^ Harper. p237
  19. ^ Harper. p.239
  20. ^ Harper p.271
  21. ^ Harper p.295
  22. ^ Gary Foote
  23. ^ 2007 Tour dates for Jacqui McShee's Pentangle
  24. ^ Harper p.219
  25. ^ Unterberger p.143
  26. ^ Unterberger, Richie. Eight miles high: folk-rock's flight from Haight-Ashbury to Woodstock. Backbeat Books, p.143. ISBN 0879307439. 
  27. ^ Sweet Child sleeve notes
  28. ^ Basket of Light sleeve notes
  29. ^ For example, Mike Barnes, writing in Observer Music Monthly, Sunday 18 February, 2007, says that Pentangle "freewheel through time signatures without ever sounding tricksy".
  30. ^ The Times, "Music from fiveangles", 7 January 1969
  31. ^ For example, Graham's 1965 collaboration with Shirley Collins: Folk Roots, New Routes
  32. ^ Quoted in Haper p.219
  33. ^ Liege and Lief was released in 1969 according to its Wikipedia entry
  34. ^ Hark! The Village Wait was released in June 1970.
  35. ^ For example, the Melody Maker 1971 Folk LP of the Year was Steeleye Span's Please to See the King
  36. ^ Harper p.236
  37. ^ BBC Folk Awards

[edit] External links