new musical horizons are taking shape...

One of the ideas that I am going to be sitting with for the next two weeks while in sunny Tucson is this: Is it time to create a Pentangle-like groove here among some of my favorite local musical friends?  
Their subtle mix of jazz and Celtic folk tunes fueled by great vocals and two of the finest acoustic guitar players ever - Bert Jansch and John Renbourne - drives me crazy! I don't know if the time is right - and if the players I want to bring together are free and/or interested - so I am just putting this out there as a teaser. I know I am hungry for it. (BTW this clip comes from the 2008 revival; it is Pentangle's refashioned interpretation of the Miles Davis classic: "All Blues" that they first did back in 1970.)

I have a similar fascination for their cover of "Sally Go 'Round the Roses." I was knocked out back in 1963 when the Jaynettes put it out first: the instrumentation sounds like it was recorded under water, the vocalists sound sultry while singing a melody that hails from an old English nursery rhyme and a few years later Grace Slick and her band, The Great Society, gave it a proper psychedelic treatment. What Pentangle does, however, emphasizes the English folk song tempo mixed with a hot bass, stunning guitar riffs and the playful call and response vocal between Jansch and lead vocalist Jacquie McShee. 

Ok I confess that my favorite upright bass player of all time, Danny Thompson, comes from this band, too. They were the first "genre benders" in music to sweep me off my feet and I have never gotten over them. Lots to ponder as new horizons open up... we'll see, yes? Take a listen to this and ponder with me.