"And 1961-1972"
Liner Notes
By John Platt
Prologue
Although the music on these recordings begins in 1961, the story starts over thirty years earlier when Alexis was born into the cosmopolitan world of Paris between the wars. At the time his father, an ex Austrian cavalry officer, was involved in a multitude of business activities all over Europe and North Africa. Although Alexis didn't always travel with his father, his peripatetic early life in those rarerified circles had a profound effect in shaping his future abhorrence of being tied down.
The Korner family finally settled in England in 1939 and, along with his parents, Alexis acquired British citizenship. War-time London was, in retrospect (and ironically), the perfect place for Alexis to grew up. Young Korner's complete individualism rapidly made itself manifest and although the war brought its own crop of pretty regulations, a lot of pre-war norms of behaviour went completely out of the window. Soho, even then, was the place to go and Alexis hung out in all the low dives, pretending to be a sailor on leave from the Free French Navy.
Around this time Alexis made the discovery that was to change his life. Alexis and a friend had acquired the habit of spending Saturday mornings stealing records from stalls in the Portobello Road. Frequently these were jazz recordings, a music banned (in theory) by Korner senior, but much admired by Alexis. One morning, however, Alexis stole a record by one Jimmy Yancey; as a result the blues entered Alexis's life and were never to leave it from them on.
After leaving school Alexis joined the family shipping firm (a brief disaster) before entering the music business as A&R man at Melodisc. This was followed by a spell at Decca as a publicist and the BBC as a studio manager (where his outrageous to offend people!).
By this time Alexis was already playing and (to some extent) singing, with various trad-jazz bands, notably Chris Barber's and later Ken Colyer's.
It was an offshoot of the Barber band (including Alexis) that first performed 'skiffle' which at the time was more or less synonymous with 'blues'. It was only later that it developed into the commercialised version personified by Lonnie Donnegan.
It was more or less at the point where skiffle was taking off (around 1956) that Alexis met Cyril Davies, harmonica player, 12 string guitarist and extreme Leadbelly enthusiast. They decided that they wanted to play 'real' blues with no compromises. In short order they took over the room above the Roundhouse pub in Wardour Street and the London Blues and Barrelhouse Club was formed. Blues was a minority pursuit and the club never did particularly well - its chief supporters, in fact, were American bluesman like Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, who by this time were touring the country thanks largely to the efforts of Chris Barber, whose band usually backed them.
A local following did gradually appear, several of them aspiring performers like Long John Baldry. Never popular with critics, Korner and Davies decided to antagonise them ever further by acquiring amplification - 10 watts between the two of them - and adding bass (stand-up variety), drums and piano. They lost the Roundhouse (for playing too loud!) but these seeds of Britain's first electric RnB band - Blues Incorporated - had been sown.
Blues Inc.
1961-1967
Unable to obtain gigs in the increasingly reactionary world of trad jazz clubs the obvious answer for Korner and Davies was to open a new club. They did this in March 1962 in the unlikely setting of the basement of a teashop in Ealing. Within weeks the place was packed and the prestigious Marquee Club in Soho, which had previously resisted RnB, were forced to offer them a residency.
What the critics couldn't understand was why people wanted to hear this music. The answer was simple. Even the primitive form of electric RnB that Blues inc. were playing was far more exciting than the forced jollity of trad jazz.
The other factor that was gaining the music so much popularity was Korner himself.
At the drop of a hat he would enthuse endlessly about his favourite music and few listeners could fail to be moved by his erudition, sincerity and his undoubted charisma.
It has to be said that Blues Inc. was rarely stable. In the early days particularly, almost anybody who felt like it could sit in. many of those early musicians are now forgotten (as in the line-up on the first track on this album 'She Fooled Me') but gradually better known musicians started to drift away from trad jazz (like Dick Heckstall-Smith, future Stone Charlie Watts, and future Cream members Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker) to join Blues Inc. At the same time Korner was inspiring young kids who'd never performed before to get into music. Thus either as guest artists for one night or as semi permanent members any of the following could have been seen with Blues Inc. during 1962 and 3 - Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Paul Jones, Eric Clapton, Graham Bond, etc., etc.
The first serious split came in October 1962 when Davies left. His concept of the blues being different from Alexis - Alexis liked horns and Davies hated them. Blues Inc's base of operation moved as well - down the road to the Flamingo, where it was felt that the horn based sound would go down better. In fact it should be said that although the blues remained Alexis' first love he enjoyed (and played) practically anything from soul through to modern jazz. Witness track 3 on the album which is an arrangement of Charlie Mingus' 'Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me'.
Despite the massive success of many of those he encouraged, Korner and Blues Inc. never achieved commercial recognition, a fact that never really disturbed Korner.
The band plugged on, changing almost monthly, recording regularly and frequently appearing on the radio. New members included Terry Cox and Danny Thompson, (later of Pentangle), who, remarkably, stayed with the band for over three years. In fact as a trio they had the odd distinction of being the house band on a weekly children's TV show, 'Five O'clock Club', for which Alexis was also Musical Director. Alexis continued Blues Inc. for several years but by 1967 it was obvious that the band was really 'Alexis and friends' and the name was dropped.
Free At Last
New Church
And Solo
1967-1972
With the final dissolution of Blues Inc., Alexis formed a new band 'Free At Last' with Hughie Flint (drums - from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) and Cliff Barton (bass - from Cyril Davies' RnB All Stars and Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men). In common with Blues Inc. this line-up was far from stable and others who passed through included drummer Gerry Conway, who went on to the Eclection and Fairport Convention and singer Marsha Hunt. In reality this was a period when Alexis spent more time hosting radio shows than performing and Free At Last only survived until mid 1967, although Alexis did bequeath the 'Free' part to a new group who made good use of the name.
The second half of 1967 and early '68 saw little in the way of Alexis performances but he did record notably as 'Duo' either with Victor Brox or Robert Plant, (immediately prior to his joining Led Zeppelin), examples of both of which are included here. Incidentally the Steve Miller featured on 'Operator' is the English one not the American one.
In early '68 Alexis gradually returned to performing and started to sing much more than in his earlier bands (Blues Inc. had always had a separate lead vocalist). His popularity in Germany also dates from this time and may be traced to a sell out gig in Frankfurt (with two local musicians) in March 1968, one track from which, 'Everyday I Have The Blues' is included here.
A new band was always on the cards and in early 1969 Alexis set about forming 'New Church'. Early rehearsals for the band were held at Brian Jones' mansion in Sussex, indeed there are those who believe that Jones, who'd just left the Stones, was so impressed with the band that he was going to join it.
Apart from Alexis the mainstay of the band was the Danish musician Peter Thorup, whom Alexis had met whilst guesting with Thorup's band The Beefeaters, in Denmark. Also in the early line-up were Alexis' daughter Sappho on vocals and Nick South on bass.
New Church made its English debut at the Stones' free concert in Hyde Park in July 1969, a sad occasion in many ways as the question of whether Brian Jones would join the band had been rendered academic by his death. Needles to say New Church's line-up fluctuated; others who passed through including saxophonist Ray Warleigh (who had been in Blues Inc. for a time), vocalist Annette Brox and at least two more bass players - Per Frost (another Dane) and Colin Hodgkinson (who went on to Back Door but continued to play with Alexis on and off until Alexis' death).
The two tracks on side 2 feature the Korner, Thorup, Warleigh, Hodgkinson line-up and were recorded at the Hamburg concert in December 1969. The other tracks feature the expanded line-up used for recording.
New Church lasted throughout 1970, but Alexis continued to perform and record as a solo or 'with Friends' as in the last two tracks on side 3, where he is duetting with Thorup and Colin Hodgkinson respectively. Another project, but one that should be regarded largely as an extra curricular activity, was the studio band CCS formed by Alexis and Peter Thorup. They lasted (or to be more exact put out records) between 1970 and '74 and were in many ways the most commercial project with which Alexis was ever involved. As a result the music doesn't really fit with his other recordings, so nothing is included here. However what to be Alexis' last 'real' band Snape certainly are worthy of inclusion.
Snape
1972
Snape, unlike most of his bands, largely fell into Alexis' lap. In early 1972 when Humble Pie undertook their first tour of America, Steve Marriott invited Alexis and Peter Thorup to open the show for them. Also in the States at the same time were King Crimson, their paths frequently crossing with Korner and Thorup. One night in Virginia, Crimson drummer Ian Wallace sat in with the duo, who later introduced them to Crimson’s bass player Boz and reed player Mel Collins. They hit it off so well that all three quit Crimson and joined up with Alexis and SNAPE were born.
Surprisingly, the SNAPE line-up remained constant throughout its (admittedly relatively short) existence. However on a subsequent tour of Germany they expanded to a 7 piece, with keyboard player Tim Hinkley and percussionist Gaspar Lawal.
Two tracks recorded live on that tour are included here. For various reasons, despite enormous critical success both in Europe and America, Alexis chose not to continue with SNAPE, who became, as already mentioned, his last proper band. In thus seems a good place as any to close this compilation of 'early Alexis'.
Epilogue
Of course Alexis didn't retire after that, although here in England we saw little of his live or recorded work, as he continued to favour Europe, especially Germany.
Although the amount of recorded material became finite with his untimely death in January 1984, there is a wealth of recordings that remain either unreleased, only released outside of Britain, or just plain rare (and will be the subject of future compilations or reissues).
This current compilation is not a 'Best of Alexis Korner' but simply a cross-section of material recorded over an eleven year period that indicates the variety of both material and styles that Alexis utilised during that time - with a little help, of course, from his friends...
John Platt