Pentangle (or The Pentangle) are a British folk-jazz group with an eclectic mix of folk, jazz and blues influences. The original group formed in 1967. Renbourn and Jansch were already popular musicians on the British folk scene, with several solo albums each and a duet album. Their use of complex inter-dependent guitar parts, referred to as “folk baroque”, had become a distinctive characteristic of their music. Jacqui McShee had begun as an “floor singer” in several of the London folk clubs, and then, by 1965, ran a folk club at the Red Lion in Sutton, establishing a friendship with Jansch and Renbourn when they played there. She sang on Renbourn’s Another Monday album and performed with him as a duo. Thompson and Cox were well known as jazz musicians and had played together in Alexis Korner’s band. Thompson was well-known to Renbourn through appearances at Les Cousins and working with him on a project for television.
Pentangle signed up with Transatlantic Records and their eponymous debut album was released in May 1968. In June of that year they performed at the Royal Festival Hall. Recordings from that concert formed part of their second album, Sweet Child (released in November 1968), a double LP comprising live and studio recordings.
They first came to my attention through “Light Flight” which was used as the theme music for the television series Take Three Girls (the BBC’s first drama series to be broadcast in colour) The song was taken from their third album ‘Basket of Light, which followed in mid-1969, and was their greatest commercial success, The album went all the way to number five in the charts. By 1970, they were at the peak of their popularity, recording a soundtrack for the film Tam Lin.
Sadly, their fourth album, Cruel Sister, released in October 1970, was a commercial disaster. This was an album of traditional songs that included a 18 1/2-minute-long version of “Jack Orion”, a song that Jansch and Renbourn had recorded previously as a duo. It failed to go higher than number 51 in the charts. Sadly there are no live recordings of this song on You Tube, but it worth listening to as an album track. The band returned to a mix of traditional and original material on Reflection, recorded in March 1971. This was received without enthusiasm by the music press. By this time, the strains of touring and of working together as a band were readily apparent. The final album of the original lineup was Solomon’s Seal, released by Warner Brothers/Reprise in 1972. Its release was accompanied by a UK tour. The last few dates of the tour had to be cancelled owing to Thompson becoming ill. On New Year’s Day, 1973, Jansch decided to leave the band. “Pentangle Split” was the front-page headline of the first issue of Melody Maker of the year.
This track is taken from that final album before the split.
