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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary.
The mysterious Robbie Basho
took up John Fahey's solo-guitar music, wed it to eastern mysticism
(way before new-age music was invented), mixed in elements
of middle-eastern, Indian, Latin and Japanese music
(way before world-music was invented), and added experimentation derived from
jazz improvisation (way before fusion was invented).
Seal Of The Blue Lotus (1965),
The Grail And the Lotus (1966) and
Falconer's Arm (1967) are simply unique.
Venus In Cancer (1969) and
Song Of The Stallion (1971)
are more than unique.
Full bio.
Robbie Basho
(an orphan, adopted as Daniel Robinson, born 1940 in Baltimore) was perhaps the most mysterious of the solo guitar experimenters of the 1960s: originally a folk-singer and guitarist from Maryland who played blues and country,
he eventually coined an ethno-music spiritualism that assimilated white music,
black music, Latin music (flamenco), and oriental music (Indian, Persian,
Japanese). His declared goal was to create classical music for the “steel stringed
guitar.” That intent remained largely unrealistic for him, yet laid the foundations for
a deeper musical awareness for future generations of guitarists.
Robinson changed his name in honor of the Japanese poet
Matsuo Basho.
He fell in love with the Indian raga in 1962 when he discovered Ravi Shankar, and developed a raga-influenced style of playing the 12-string guitar.
By 1965 he had relocated to Berkeley, in a house shared with three members of
Country Joe & The Fish near the folk club Jabberwock where he was performing with bluegrass bands like the Pine Valley Boys of Butch Waller and Herb Pedersen.
His musical career truly began when he met again his old schoolmate John Fahey in Seattle.
Seal of the Blue Lotus (Takoma, 1965
– Fantasy, 1966), The Grail and the Lotus (Takoma, 1966), and the tracks recorded in February, 1966 that are
collected on Guitar Soli (Takoma,
1996) are largely improvised, and they scan along the lines of Indian raga.
They are still naïve and fairytale-esque, even in the radiant visions of the
exotic Dharma Prince and Golden Shamrock (both from the second,
more delicate record).
The Grail and the Lotus (Takoma, 1966) contains:
The Grail and the Lotus ("composed in the mood of medieval England at the time of the Crusades" and including an ancient ballad),
The Dharma Prince (inspired by
Japanese Koto),
Oriental Love Song
(based on a song by his friend Mary Koth with unusual guitar tuning),
The Golden Shamrock
(a Fahey-esque raga),
Street Dakini,
Chung Mei - Chinese Orchid (an Irish-Chinese hybrid).
Basho Sings
(Takoma, 1967) is a minor test of self-experimentation (on which he sings). On Contemporary Guitar (1967) another
landmark composition appears: The
Thousand Incarnations of the Rose (16 minutes).
The double LP Falconer’s
Arm (Takoma, 1967), although marred by some clumsy tenor singing,
embraces more daring guitar experiments.
Basho launches in lively Scottish-accented ragas
(Falconer’s Arm) and concocts the four-movement symphony for solo guitar
Lost Lagoon Suite (inspired by popular legends and overflowing with
narrative and dramatic effects).
The titanic flamenco-ish lament of Pasha and the heroic, hare-krishna hymn Song of God crown this unprecedented
tour de force of guitar playing.
Venus in Cancer (Blue Thumb, 1969 – Tompkins Square, 2006),
which contains
the nine-minute Venus In Cancer,
the ten-minute Kowaka D'Amour,
the nine-minute Song For The Queen and
the eight-minute Cathedrals Et Fleur De Lis,
and especially Song of the Stallion (Takoma, 1971)
sublimate Basho’s fusion of
raga and country. Both records are uninterrupted waves of cascading chords
that originate from an
impetuous and torrential vitalism.
These masterpieces close
the great season of Basho’s career as an independent loner.
Basho is the folk musician who most consciously
abstracted and universalized the transcendental spirit of the raga and transferred it
into the infinite of America's vast prairies and green hills. He wed
the raga to the breath of virgin and wild nature.
The Voice of the Eagle (Vanguard, 1972 – Comet, 2001) is an album of more conventional songs.
Zarthus
(Vanguard, 1974) still contains extended tracks such as Rhapsody in Druz, but it is again marred by his tenor.
His career ended with Visions of the Country (Third Ear, 1978 – Windham Hill, 1978), Art Of The Acoustic Steel String Guitar
(Lost Lake Arts, 1979), Rainbow Thunder
(Silver, 1981), Bouquet (Basho, 1983
), Twilight Peaks (Vital Body, 1984
- Windham Hill, 1985).
Bonn Ist Supreme (Bo Weavil, 2008) documents a live performance from 1980.
Bashovia (Takoma, 2001) is an anthology drawn from Falconer's Arm and Song of the Stallion.
He died in 1986 at the age of 45 of a freak accident during a chiropractic session.
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