John Martyn The Apprentice - Remastered & Expanded.
John Martyn
The Apprentice - Remastered & Expanded
(Esoteric/Cherry Red)
By Paul Davies.
This first recording, of two albums of original material, for Permanent Records following the tepid commercial success and artistic nadir of his previous album Piece By Piece - his final recording for Island Records - has many merits to it. It also contains Martyn's usual quotient of soppy song duffers since he turned fully electric from 1980's controversially delayed Grace And Danger release and, especially, 1981's jazz-pop Glorious Fool onwards. Recorded in Glasgow at the back end of 1989 with his then wingman Foster Patterson on keyboards, long-term drummer Aran Ahmun, bassist Dave Taif-Ball and revered jazz saxophonist Andy Shepherd guesting, this strong ensemble of players deliver their classy musical chops across this recording's fluctuating standard of compositions.
To start, Live On Love heralds in a musical melange of commercial funky-pop with its mix of up and downbeat musical passages - which arguably reflects Martyn's own character traits. The River then continues Martyn's obsession with water, be it a river, canal or the sea, and fathoms soulful depths on one of this album's outstanding tracks. Written about his daughter, Mhairi, Look At The Girl has musical sentiments in all the right places and glides pleasurably along on a cool vibe. Originally composed for the 1986 film 84 Charing Cross Road, the soppy Send Me One Line causes this album to sag in the middle until rescued by Income Town, Deny This Love and title tune The Apprentice which finds Martyn on the solid, rockier ground which he excelled at as he growls and fumes on these standout songs. In contrast, Hold Me, Upo, The Moment and the over-sentimentality of the final track Patterns In The Rain expose the split personality of this recording where Martyn tries to be too many musical identities at once. Nevertheless, The Apprentice is one of his better-recorded offerings from a self-indulgent decade of false starts and dead-ends. Two rare tracks issued as a single Deny this Love and The Apprentice (live) tail off the pearlescent remastering of this redux release.
There are further goodies, that have been separately released previously, in-store on this release with the 31st March 1990 live recording from The Shaw Theatre in both audio and DVD formats. Martyn is joined by regular fretless bass player Alan Thomson and Dave Gilmour guested on about half the tracks during a lacuna in Pink Floyd and his solo activity. Collected together, and with the above caveats in mind, this is a desirable package for diehard fans of the mercurial John Martyn.