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cian, artist, cipher.) In his notes to the Smithsonian reissue of Harry Smith's
Anthology of American Folk Music (AAFM), John Fahey wrote "Frankie is one
the best vocal & guitar pieces ever, probably the best guitar recording ever,"
which words I probably would have quoted even I were not still mourning the
death their author. (Thursday 22 February in Salem, Oregon, of major complica-
tions following heart bypass surgery the previous Monday.)

Cold a week as I write (Friday March 1; he would have turned 62 yester-
day) and what do you say? Lots of great old jazz guys have passed (J.J. Johnson
and Buddy Tate most recently) and will continueto do so- but at least they
were old. (Never old: Jimmy Blanton, Charlie Christian, Clifford Brown,
Booker Little: gone at 23, 25, 25, and 23: two tuberculosis, one car accident, one
uremia.) And, as individual as the finest jazzmen are, there was something
deeply special about Fahey, as guitarist and composer and writer. Off the top of
my bean, I'd place him- why not?- with two other incorrigible (unbreakable,
bless 'em) individualists, Thelonious Monk and Lester Young.

No analogy is really adequate (pressed I'll suggest that, of his peers, only
Bob Dylan has shown as keen and expansive a sense of the invention possible-
and, I might argue, implicitly demanded by- the American folk music tradi-
tion). Things are what they are and best seen as such. The excitement, beauty
and terror, stateliness and longing, lamentations and reveries of his music is one
of the unexplainable (it's just too much and no tablature or poetic meditation can
adequately approach: it's one of the greatest things that we've got the records)
glories of our time.

And for all his reputation as a contrarian, Fahey gave a lot of himself and
guided anyone who'd listen towards his diverse sources of inspiration. Read,
reread and read again his excellent liner notes to the AAFM, AAFM Vol. 4, and
American Primitive: Raw Pre-War Gospel (the last two on his own Revenant
label). More importantly, listen to the records, the ones he loves and the ones he
made, which serve as both an encyclopedia and a private compendium of
syncretic wonders. If you have a steel string acoustic guitar, try and learn to play
some of 'em. It's pretty fun, even if you're a hack, to feel the music move under
your own fingers. "On The Sunny Side of the Ocean," "Some Summer Day,"
"Orinda-Moraga", "The Death of the Clayton Peacock", "The Great San
Bernadino Birthday Party," "Tell Her To Come Back Home; with Richard
Ruskin on the second guitar, "Medley: Silver Bell/Cheyenne" always makes me
smile. It oughta make anyone smile.

Selected Compact Disc Discography

Proensa, Paul Hillier voice, ECM New Series 1368. An excellent
collection of 11th and 12th c. troubadour songs; it is obviously a conjectural
performance, in terms you'd recognize say folky, dark... Bert Jansch, Leonard,
Nick Cave (maybe even Nick Drake) fans shouldn't flinch. A bit later and
wilder,

Alexander Skrjabin, Die 10 Sonates & Fantasie, Igor Shukow piano

30 Geek Weekly #9