Esoteric (label)
16 December 2022 (released)
21 December 2022
Originally released in 1990, ‘The Apprentice’ was both one of the most mainstream album that John Martyn produced and also true to his experimental and new-folk roots.
Recorded in Glasgow, the album featured Foster Patterson on keyboards, Dave Taif-Ball on bass and Aran Ahmun on drums with an appearance from Andy Shepherd on sax.
Martyn’s smoky vocals are perfectly suited to the backing and the music has a strong funky element, a la Robert Palmer.
The package includes a remastered version of the original album which, to my ear, has really cleaned up the excessive brightness in the original CD and makes Taif-Ball’s bass lines clearer. You also get a 2CD rendition of the concert at London’s Shaw Theatre which includes a performance from Dave Gilmour. Martyn combined tracks from ‘The Apprentice’ along with a load of his classic numbers – ‘May You Never’, ‘Sweet Little Mystery’, ‘Big Muff’, ‘Johnny Too Bad’ etc – which fit perfectly alongside the new material.
At his best, Martyn makes music of a positively mesmeric slant and here, you are really lost in the music.
All that plus a DVD of the live show and an excellent booklet which includes a long essay on Martyn’s career and problems with alcohol.
Frankly, the live CDs and DVD are the real attraction but the remastered album is superb and really does improve on the original.