Pitchfork

British singer-songwriter John Martyn, whose career ran more than 40 years, passed away this morning at the age of 60, Billboard reports. He played folk, jazz, blues, and pop, often trying to find undiscovered spaces in between. He was a singular figure-- how many people do you know who were friends with and influenced by Nick Drake, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and Phil Collins, and who worked with Burning Spear, Talvin Singh, and David Gilmour?

The constant that ran through Martyn's ever-morphing sound was his voice-- an elastic instrument that could whisper and wail with the kind of unironic and soulful intensity seemingly exclusive to high-grade 60s folk. So whether quaintly humming Dylan's "Don't Think Twice It's All Right" on his 1967 debut LP London Conversation, or breathing warmth into Portishead's "Glory Box" on 1998's The Church With One Bell, Martyn never took a note lightly. The Portishead cover was likely the result of Martyn's late-period reknown as a trip-hop originator, largely based on his experimental work on the 1977 album One World. That record included a collaboration with Lee Perry ("Big Muff") and one of his most enduring songs, the gossamer "Small Hours".

The nine-minute track is marked by Martyn's treated guitar chords that echo past the accompanying seagulls heard in the background. It's elegant, poignant and, even 22 years later, remarkably fresh. When his voice creeps in more than three minutes into the song, "Small Hours" has already taken hold: "Well you're very, very lovely, going to take you home/ They say you'll be my ruin but I just don't care/ Cos I love you so/ I just love you so." There it is: the bitter and sweet and humble and irrational in equal measure.

In 2003, Martin was beset by a burst cyst and forced to amputate his right leg. Since the operation, he'd been seen performing in a wheelchair, including an ATP Don't Look Back series appearance in 2006 in which he played his 1973 LP Solid Air in its entirety.