In this documentary, interviews and rare archive footage weave together performances from a landmark multi-artist concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London, celebrating the songs and artistry of the great folk-blues troubadour Bert Jansch. Ralph McTell, Robert Plant, Donovan, members of Pentangle, Bernard Butler, Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, Lisa Knapp and more pay tribute to Jansch, who died in 2011.
Bert Jansch was one of the most important figures in British folk, both for his solo recordings and his work with seminal British folk group, The Pentangle.
Born in Scotland, he was steeped in American blues and jazz, North African music, and folk early in his career, and by the beginning of the ’60s he was playing the British folk clubs, extending his musical education. Artists like Martin Carthy and Anne Briggs turned him on to songs in the British folk tradition. By the mid-’60s Jansch had set up residence in London where he began and playing live shows, and by making the studio recordings that would come to influence a generation of songwriters, singers, and guitar players. Classic artists like Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Paul Simon, Donovan, Elton John, and Nick Drake, all the way up to present artists like Fleet Foxes and Devendra Banhart, have acknowledged Jansch as a major influence and innovator of acoustic guitar playing.
His debut, Bert Jansch, sold a reported 150,000 copies after it came out in 1965 — pretty impressive for a new talent recording on a home tape machine, just him and his guitar and a voice that had a nasal quality perfectly suited to his songs.
By his second album, Jansch was collaborating with John Renbourn, another seminal British folk guitar giant. Together in 1967, they formed The Pentangle, one of the most important British folk groups of the ’60s. Bert Jansch is listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine’s “Top 100 Guitar Players Of All Time.”
His guitar playing could be both gentle and percussively ear-grabbing. A year after his debut, Jansch recorded a mostly instrumental disc with his then-flatmate, John Renbourn, that remains a favourite to this day. “Bert and John” is one of those records that just makes you smile. A super Bert Jansch solo album is “Avocet”, a collection of original compositions inspired by water birds. Jansch plays a variety of instruments on the album, from guitar to cittern even piano.
The Fat Angel Sings 