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Baker's Dozen

There's Always A Story: Martin Carthy's Favourite Music
Patrick Clarke , November 8th, 2023 10:32

Martin Carthy speaks to Patrick Clarke about his 13 favourite records, his love for the new wave of traditional musicians, encounters with Bob Dylan and The Beatles and more

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Miles Davis – Sketches Of Spain

I think it’s a very beautiful album. I had it because somebody told me to go and buy it. I saw it in a box at Mole Jazz close to Kings Cross Station, near where a friend of mine Sydney Carter, who wrote songs, used to live, and thought ‘Well they’re supposedly hard to find, I should get one.’ Then it sat on my shelf, ignored for years. One day, I just put it on and was completely transfixed by the music. It was apparently a real milestone for him as well as everybody who heard it, and I think it set him off on a different course. I just love Miles Davis because he was just so fucking daring, nothing scared him, especially when the blues guitarist John McLaughlin joined him and was wildly into Indian stuff.