Davy Graham
| Davey Graham | |
|---|---|
Alison Chapman McLean's photograph of Davey Graham performing at The Troubadour with Louis Killen
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Davy Graham |
| Born |
26 November 1940 Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England |
| Died | 15 December 2008 (aged 68) |
| Genres |
Folk baroque Jazz Blues |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, classical guitar, sarod, lute, oud, vocals |
| Years active | 1959–2008 (49 years) |
| Labels |
Topic Records Decca Records Outright Records Les Cousins Records |
| Website | www |
David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners of the fingerstyle acoustic guitar such as Bert Jansch, Wizz Jones, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, John Martyn, Paul Simon and Jimmy Page, who based his solo "White Summer" on Graham's "She Moved Through the Fair". Graham is probably best known for his acoustic instrumental, "Anji" and for popularizing DADGAD tuning, later widely adopted by acoustic guitarists.
Graham was born in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England, to a Guyanese mother and a Scottish father. Although he never had any music theory lessons, he learnt to play the piano and harmonica as a child and then took up the classical guitar at the age of 12. As a teenager he was strongly influenced by the folk guitar player Steve Benbow, who had travelled widely with the army and played a guitar style influenced by Moroccan music.
At the age of 19, Graham wrote what is probably his most famous composition, the acoustic guitar solo "Angi" (sometimes spelled "Anji": see below). Colin Harper credits Graham with single-handedly inventing the concept of the folk guitar instrumental. "Angi", named after his then girlfriend, appeared on his debut EP 3/4 AD in April 1962. The tune spread through a generation of aspiring guitarists, changing its spelling as it went. Before the record was released, Bert Jansch had learnt it from a 1961 tape borrowed from Len Partridge. Jansch included it on his 1965 debut album as "Angie". The spelling Anji became the more widely used after it appeared in this way on Simon & Garfunkel's 1966 album Sounds of Silence and it was as "Anji" that Chicken Shack recorded it for their 1969 100 Ton Chicken album.
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Wikipedia