There is in existence a piece of film showing a young Davey Graham in inauspicious surroundings playing a version of “Cry Me A River.” (now on U Tube) This is a complex and sophisticated piece of music and an unusual choice for a young man of eighteen years old. What is even more amazing is that it is being played in a style which had never to my knowledge been used before. Davey’s fingerstyle approach was somewhere between classical and jazz. The effect on me was awe inspiring.

Most of us who play acoustic guitar as our first instrument are seduced by the sound it makes and therefore we aspire to be guitar players and continue to learn for the rest of our playing lives. I suspect the same was initially true for Davey. However I think there is a big difference between him and the majority of the rest of us.
In the 1920’s many black guitarists would have preferred to play piano and lots of styles emerged in an attempt to make a guitar sound like piano players e.g. Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Blake and other ragtime stylists. The guitar was cheaper and portable. Also you could tune it yourself. I can barely imagine the state of resident pianos in the places where music was played for entertainment. I believe Davey chose guitar for similar reasons but just being a good (or in his case) great guitarist was an incidental. Davey’s obsession was and remained music.

Frank Zappa once said of jazz, “either you get it or you don’t” If you “get it” then your musical landscape is broadened and enhanced and Davey “got it”. Not only did he “get” jazz but he seemed to have a global understanding of music that was far more than just enjoying it. It was a language that he understood or was determined to understand and the guitar was mainly his medium for this life long exploration.

There will be many more appreciations listing Davey’s achievements than I want to mention here. Often in live performance he was unreliable. I have seen his brow knotted in concentration and also no hint of embarrassment when something did not quite come off. To say Davey’s performances were uneven is an understatement. In later years even more so and Davey’s open attitude to the use of hard drugs may have been a contributing factor but I have seen as many great performances as indifferent ones. Sometimes it is enough to be in the same room as genius and the performance is secondary.

My own initial contact with his work was when my dear friend the late Henry Bartlett bought me a copy of 3/4 AD an E.P. recorded with Alexis Korner. The title track was a fairly ordinary 12 bar jam but the B side contained two titles one of which was called Davey’s Train Blues (Based on Jimmy Guiffrres Train and the River) and a self penned item called Anji. Up until this point I had been content to rattle out passable versions of “Freight Train” and a few Blind Boy Fuller tunes but here was a tune that combined a quirky rhythm figure with a tune of simple beauty with sexy blue notes with a hypnotic descending bass line. The hard part of this was that there were two beats to every bass note instead of the one that most of us were able to play. I was captivated and for the next few weeks played nothing else. Finally I could manage a passable version. My mates were impressed! It practically became my signature tune. Most importantly for me, it made me “unlearn” habits that I had got into. It is always harder to unlearn and as I began to experiment with ragtime and non pattern methods of accompaniment, this piece served me well.

The first time I saw Davey was at a Sunday afternoon session at a coffee bar called “ Under the Olive Tree” in Croydon, just prior to the release of his acclaimed “Folk Blues and Beyond” album. The effect was utterly amazing. Davey was playing his Gibson J 45 (the one he had used on the album) “The guitar player” and he was tuning the strings to different notes in order to achieve eastern modal sounds based on Moroccan music. He described his own version of “ She Moved Through the Fair” as She moved through the Curry! A little light relief in a performance of such guitar based intensity that it is not possible to convey with the passing of so many years.

No amplification, a J 45 guitar, DADGAD tuning, a Sunday afternoon, no alcohol, and there was also Davey’s appearance. Not for him the combat jacket and jeans of the folk movement. He looked more like he had stepped out of an outfit like the Modern Jazz Quartet. He wore his hair short and a light coloured raincoat. I think he wore a suit for his performance. I managed a word of appreciation but Davey was almost completely out of my league by now and travelling in a direction few if any could follow and in any event it would only be in his wake. I think he would have been about 25 years old!

Over the years, |I kept up with most of his releases but not all and as is often the case we do not always understand every step of the journey someone else is taking. On the occasions when we met, Davey was always gracious and kind to me, This photo was taken of Davey and me at the Cambridge festival some years back.

In recent years we shared a gig at the Blackheath Halls where Davey showed up with a very ancient old Hofner Guitar which was not a great success and a little later we played on the same bill for a charity for a women’s refuge in Barnstable.

Most recently, on hearing Davey was ill I wrote him a proper fan letter thanking him for opening up the guitar for me and for all his wonderful contribution to the British if not world music scene. There are precious few true innovators on any instrument. Without Davey I don’t think the styles of Bert Jansch or John Renbourne would have emerged. I think John Martyn and Paul Simon would admit an influence too. I certainly am proud to acknowledge my debt to Davey and perhaps that is the contribution we all subconsciously make when we absorb another artist’s style into our own. We are passing on part of their music. My old friend Wizz Jones once introduced Davey on stage as “ that well known ‘beyond’ guitar player!” Everyone in the audience nodded snd grinned in recognition. Davey’s deep understanding of music and his own explorations will be a constant reminder that msic itself will always be bigger than those who aspire to play it. I am just grateful that Davey Graham chose to do it on the accoustic guitar.

Davey Graham World musician and guitarist.
born 22nd November 1940
died 15th December 2008