Bo'Weavil Rec. 
Robbie Basho : Bonn Ist Supreme (US,rec.1980,pub.2008)****°
When people think of solo guitar Fahey and Kottke are always the first which comes to mind, but when you want to go much deeper into the essence and deep waters of guitar playing you need to come across Robbie Basho. If you listen to his first 1965 recording it is already clear how he was ahead its time, because it simply sounds too far away from the usual pop and style-bound standards to be comprehensible or immediately reachable to most. In the midst of cowboys, also the appearance of Buddha would be so far out, they would prefer him to be wiped out of their vision, when personally not somewhat matured and spiritually aware that makes them ready to change and adapt something of a different level. I also noticed that people also still hardly understand his later works, and can barely understand his way of singing. Glenn Jones was one of the few who had met, recognised and shared ideas with Robbie, and made a few copies of his private recordings. It is a sad thing to read in the liner notes is that most of his unreleased recordings were given to the Meher Baba centre (Robbie was devoted to Meher Baba in his life), where they made no attempt to do anything with this or even communicate about it with the “outside world”. Glenn Jones luckily still had these second run copies otherwise we would have been left with nothing else. This particular live recording was chosen to present Robbie in full grace. I think it will make his person and full-range approach within reach of the audience. Glenn’s copy is the only remaining copy known within reach. Also the cultural centre in Bonn seems to have thrown the original tapes away, so this is the best we could get. The album was mastered by Matthew Azevedo, and he still managed to make it sound worth hearing.
The CD release features liner introductions by Steffen Basho-Junghans, the German guitarist who stepped into the footsteps of Robbie Basho and recognised him as his master teacher and inspiration, to take his own next steps, with personal interpretations of his muse, and new explorations. Other notes are by Richard Osborn, and lastly there’s a 7 page introduction by producer Glenn Jones.
What the notes also say is that in his later life Robbie separated his set in what he called an ‘Americana’ and a ‘new classical’ set. Also on this recording we hear how he starts with recognisable standards, taken immediately to quick and skilful short tracks of interpretations, like the short and quickly played bluesfolk picking tune, “Redwood Ramble”, with its own grace, followed by “Fandango”, referring to Mexico as he says, also played with rambling fastness, and a short section of singing. “Variations on ‘Easter’” he says is one out of 35 different tunings of it. Then he plays his first raga, that should provoke the feelings of ‘mountain’. When he sings here in a deep lunged way, for me it is as if he’s singing like a native Indian spirit. Through this he makes connections with the land and the spirit of the land, a new wider and deeper scope on what he personally perhaps associates with being ‘Americana’. Very charming is that Robbie attempts to speak and introduce the titles into German, at times I could not understand. Often he gives the feeling he does not come from the US, but is some Indian master. The raga contains not just fast playing, but also surprisingly, slow resonating odd chords, which stretch the balance towards a slight disharmony and then comes back to a different harmony. After a few personal creative miniatures, by the last few raga’s he has already completely changed the orientation of the listener, and prepared thel for a different level of experience. (calling the last track “California Raga” might have confused some of these listeners in that way). These tracks are majestetically played and with grandeur, losing the idea that someone actually is playing, reaching other worlds with its chords, and that’s what his intention might be, picking out consciously certain chords which he personally associates with certain spiritual effects. From “Cathedrals and Fleur de Lis” I still have to add he used here unusual, resonating and almost hammering chords before another section with quick pickings, with a raga-like effect. On the last, already mentioned bis-track, “California Raga”, he sings once in a full breasted fashion. Here on this live recording I must say I cannot understand that people still don’t feel the intentions behind this voice. For me, this proves him surely right, making this new album a perfect starter to understand Robbie Basho well/better.
