Wizz Jones: the silent magician

Last month the world folk scene lost one of its historical pillars: the silent but “observed” Wizz Jones. He was defined as a “musician's musician”: this expression, which seems to allude to him as a figure aimed almost exclusively at a specialized audience, is actually much more powerful. Wizz was a pioneer and founder of the British guitar tradition, so much so that he was the musician not only of local enthusiasts but of names that have made the history of world folk and rock music. Keith Richards remembers him in his autobiography: “Wizz Jones was an observed man. I learned Cocaine from him. Nobody, absolutely nobody, played with that South Carolina style. He picked up Cocaine from Ramblin Jack Elliott, but well before anyone else. Wizz Jones was an observed man; observed by Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page”. “The most underrated guitarist in history” Bert Jansch defined him. And Clapton again: “we used to meet in pubs, where I would do Big Bill Broonzy songs imitating local musicians like Wizz Jones.”. Here then are a couple of musicians of whom he was the musician.

He was born in Thornton Heath, a few kilometers south of London, back in 1939. His mother gave him the nickname Wizz at age nine, inspired by “Wizzy the Wuzz”, a character from a comic who did card tricks, as he was passionate about card games in those years. From a very young age he became passionate about overseas culture, in particular the beat poetics of Kerouac and the figure of Woodie Guthrie: undoubtedly a cultural panorama not so close to a British boy in the early 50s. So he grew his hair long. In London in those years something peculiar happened, destined to define what would become the English cultural scene and the future Swingin’ London: the first concerts of American musicians. Wizz always remembered with amazement Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Big Bill Broonzy and Muddy Waters, all guests of a club that became a cult called The Roundhouse (among the organizers of these events there was also, not surprisingly, the first British bluesman Alexis Korner). This led the teenager Wizz to want to play the guitar; and it really seems that for him it became an obsession! “I thought Wizz was a magician! He was on the folk circuit and getting paid! He was great when we played in the school bathrooms” his companion Keith Richards remembered again. At eighteen (in 1957) he was one of the first to found a skiffle group (they were called “The Wranglers”): among the others who rode this student skiffle wave in the same period there were the Quarrymen (who would be called, a couple of years later, The Beatles).

In any case, this wave lasted very little and, from 1960, a period of musical wandering began for him: first of all in Paris, where he shared this experience among others with Ralph McTell, Clive Palmer of the Incredible String Band and a very young Rod Stewart. He spent a couple of years wandering around Europe, even pushing as far as North Africa, amidst music, busking, hitchhiking, and arranged hospitality. He was not an isolated case: almost all the most iconic British guitarists of the 60s spent a period of their lives like this; they were defined - with a certain detachment - beatniks, in the wake of the literary vein of Kerouac, Corso, and Ferlinghetti. British journalist Alan Whicker made a documentary on this “subculture” at a festival in Newquay in Cornwall, in which an interview and performance of a very young Wizz Jones also stands out (available on YouTube with the title Beatniks in Newquay, 1960 at this link: https://youtu.be/W3WfXA9JL9w?si=slbeJ1d_e6Q5F88r). He was asked, with a subtly provocative tone, what he thought of those who called them exhibitionists. He replied saying that they were simply doing what they liked: playing the guitar, living on as little as possible, and without worrying more than necessary about outward appearance. He adds, with a certain proud yet irritated air, that he is by now one of the last to follow this lifestyle: many moved away from it due to the gradual marginalization towards them. In this regard, Wizz recounted how it was almost impossible to be served at a pub due to his social standing.

In any case, after a couple of years he returned permanently to London, where he began a collaboration with Pete Stanley, a banjo player. In 1966 they recorded an LP together, the first of Wizz's career: Sixteen Tons of Bluegrass. He then continued his solo career releasing, three years later, his first “self-entitled” album: simply “Wizz Jones”. John Renbourn said of him: “in those days guitar skills were measured by three things: knowing how to play blues like Big Bill Broonzy (the test pieces were “Hey Hey” and “Guitar Shuffle”), knowing how to fingerpick like Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (“Cocaine Blues” and “Railroad Bill”), and flatpicking like Jack Lawrence. Wizz knew how to do all three with ease, which made him a top man”. He continued to play and write music uninterruptedly, composing iconic pieces like “One Grain of Sand” accompanied by Renbourn on the sitar or “When I Leave Berlin” (a song that became a classic, performed live even by Bruce Springsteen). He participated briefly as a guitarist in a couple of groups in the 70s: Accolade and Lazy Farmer, but his career took place almost completely solo. He also gained popularity among the younger generations of guitarists in 1992, when he was one of the musicians invited for Bert Jansch's documentary-record “Acoustic Routes”: this led him to do his first tour in the United States.

In 2014 he began a highly successful collaboration with his historical colleague John Renbourn, which led them to be “friends like never before” and from which the album Joint Control was born. They were also interviewed together at the height of their activity, just a few days before John's unexpected death (you can listen to it on the BBC website at this link https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p02m1p7f). Wizz always continued to play, despite being past his eighties. This year, at eighty-six, he announced a live show in London at the end of February on Facebook like this: “Quite possibly my last gig! I've had a good run... but my health is leaving me and I'm slowly going downhill!”. “Wizz was worried about disappointing the audience with his now weak voice, but he was even more worried about disappointing them by not showing up...” his son Simeon said. These were his concluding words at the end of that concert: "Thank you to all the people, all over the world, who have listened to my songs and my guitar playing, and came to my gigs for all those years. Thank you very much.".

Francesco Moncalvo and Chiara Pezzella (“The Trains Fair”)