Wizz Jones obituary

When Bruce Springsteen performed the Berlin Olympiastadion in May 2012, he started with a formidable tune about an East Berliner celebrating freedom. Few, if any, within the crowd would have realised that the unique model of When I Leave Berlin used to be written in 1971 via an English guitarist and singer-songwriter, whom Springsteen failed to say.

Wizz Jones, who has died elderly 86, by no means did benefit from the luck of lots of his contemporaries, however used to be a folks scene hero with a devoted following, specifically amongst different musicians. In his 2010 autobiography, Life, Keith Richards describes assembly Wizz whilst he used to be at artwork faculty, ahead of becoming a member of the Rolling Stones: “Wizz Jones used to drop in, with a Jesus haircut and a beard. Great folk picker, great guitar picker … I think I learned Cocaine from him – the song and that crucial fingerpicking lick of the period, not the dope …”

He additionally inspired every other guitar hero, the folks singer Martin Carthy, who first met Jones within the past due 1950s. “He was extraordinary,” Carthy mentioned. “People always talk about Davy Graham, but Wizz was his equal. He could play a blues that swung like mad, and also wrote some very beautiful songs. I played with him a couple of times and he was always different. He was a one-off, a beatnik – he had really long hair even then.”

Wizz discovered via taking note of American heroes equivalent to Blind Lemon Jefferson, Big Bill Broonzy and Derroll Adams, in addition to Graham and Long John Baldry in the United Kingdom, and used to be the archetypal troubadour; he performed within the London espresso properties and people golf equipment, then took off to France, Morocco or his liked Cornwall. When the journalist Alan Whicker visited Newquay in 1960 for a BBC file at the marketing campaign to prohibit beatniks from the Cornish the town’s pubs and retail outlets, Jones performed a starring position, demonstrating his superb finger-picking guitar paintings as he sang “It’s hard times in Newquay if you’ve got long hair.”

One of those that performed with Wizz in Cornwall used to be the singer-songwriter Ralph McTell – within the days ahead of he was noted for Streets of London. He mentioned: “It was like getting a knighthood – I couldn’t believe one of my heroes was inviting me down to Cornwall. He had a tent with his wife and boys, I had a little tent, and we played at a pub called the Mermaid in Newquay – until we got fired because the place couldn’t cope with the number of people who came.” He went to a launderette with Wizz “and he realised he hadn’t got any money on him. So we went outside with our guitars and busked for 20 minutes until he had the money to do the nappies.”

Another common customer to Cornwall used to be the banjo participant Pete Stanley, with whom Wizz labored for 4 years and recorded his first album, Sixteen Tons of Bluegrass (1966). He additionally performed with Clive Palmer, after he left the Incredible String Band. “Two undisciplined wandering beatnik minstrels – they hit it off,” McTell mentioned.

His debut solo album, Wizz Jones (1969), used to be recorded for a big label, United Artists, and incorporated Dazzling Stranger, one of the songs that he coated that have been written via his buddy Alan Tunbridge. In the 70s he recorded for different labels together with CBS, Village Thing (the folks indie began via the musician and author Ian A Anderson) and for labels in Germany. He collaborated with now-famous buddies, together with McTell, John Renbourn and Bert Jansch, and began a band, Lazy Farmer, that incorporated his spouse, Sandy. And he started recording his personal tough songs, together with When I Leave Berlin and his beautiful, extremely private tune to Sandy, Happiness Was Free (1976).

In the 80s, a troublesome time for lots of folks artists, he survived via using a truck handing over furnishings, whilst additionally gambling as a duo, the Cynic Brothers, together with his saxophone and harmonica-playing son, Simeon. In the 90s he launched his first album in the United States, Dazzling Stranger (1995) and toured there for the primary time. A significant excursion with Sonic Youth in 2001 used to be cancelled on account of 9/11; his airplane used to be compelled to show again.

In later years, his profession took an upturn. In 2013 he made a powerful contribution to the Jansch memorial live performance on the Royal Festival Hall, London, and toured and recorded with Renbourn. Their album Joint Control (2016) used to be launched after Renbourn’s demise. With his previous buddy McTell, he recorded About Time (2016) and About Time Too (2017).

Come What May (2017) used to be recorded with but every other guitarist buddy, Pete Berryman, and Simeon, with Simeon’s son Alfie becoming a member of on one observe. The 3 Jones generations additionally gave presentations in combination. In 2019 Wizz used to be introduced with a life-time success award on the BBC Folk awards.

Wizz used to be born in Croydon, south London, and taken up via his mom, Alice – his given title used to be Raymond, however his love of magic tips earned him the nickname Wizzy the Wuzz. His father, Timothy, returned from the second one international warfare in 1945 after being held as a PoW via the Japanese, indexed as lacking, and located it inconceivable to settle into anybody activity. His tale is advised in Wizz’s pained tune Burma Star. Wizz attended Oval number one and junior faculties and Selhurst grammar, and left college at 16 “with meagre qualifications”. He performed in a skiffle crew, then began travelling.

In 1963 he married Sandy Wedlake, who says they met “when I was 15, coming up to 16, and he was an old man of 20 or 21”. She survives him, in conjunction with their youngsters, Marty, Daniel, Simeon and Bonnie, and 4 grandchildren.