Jazz Articles about Robbie Basho

A Bouquet of Basho: The Musical Legacy of a Legend

by Jakob Baekgaard
January 11, 2025

It is hard to underestimate the importance of a documentary when it comes to the goal of preserving the legacy of a musician. Unlike a book, a documentary tells the story of an artist in a way that is much more condensed and adds a visual and aural aspect that the written page misses. Liam Barker's beautiful documentary, Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho (2020), was a gamechanger in many ways. Not only did ...

Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho

by Jakob Baekgaard
May 24, 2020

Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho A film by Liam Barker Liam Barker Film Production2015/2019 Acoustic guitar music wouldn't be the same without the pioneering effort of John Fahey, but If Fahey became the face of what he dubbed American Primitive music, a genre of advanced acoustic guitar music influenced by country-blues, Robbie Basho was just as important in opening the vista of guitar playing. Whereas Fahey's hero was country-blues guitarist, Charlie ...

Robbie Basho: The Art of the Acoustic Steel String Guitar 6&12

by Mario Calvitti
April 20, 2015

Al momento della sua scomparsa, avvenuta prematuramente nel febbraio 1986 a soli 45 anni, il chitarrista Robbie Basho era già quasi dimenticato. Dopo il boom della chitarra acustica cui lui stesso aveva contribuito nella seconda metà degli anni '60, la sua fama si era progressivamente oscurata, a causa di uno stile troppo avanzato per il suo tempo e la concorrenza di uno stuolo di fingerpickers, con Leo Kottke come esponente principale, decisamente più abbordabili da parte del pubblico medio. Così, ...

Robbie Basho: Bashovia

by Derek Taylor
September 1, 2001

Robbie Basho had all the requisite trappings of a musical eccentric. So states John Fahey in his posthumously published sleeve notes to this second compendium of the enigmatic guitarist’s work for Fahey’s own Takoma label. While Fahey’s reminiscences often poke fun Basho’s fabricated persona (and ironically cite several critiques that could just as easily be leveled against Fahey himself) they also reflect an underlying respect for the man, both as musician and stylistic original.

Fancying himself the reincarnation of a ...