Liner Notes of "Musically Rich and Famous" by Mark Troster
Whenever the subject of the development of British Rhythm & Blues is raised, one particular name is invariably at the forefront of discussion..... Alexis Korner. Dubbed 'The Father of British Rhythm & Blues' Alexis was born in Paris on 19th April 1928 to an Austrian father and Greek/Turkish mother, spent his early childhood moving around Europe and finally settled in London just before the start of the Second World War.
Alexis' first musical experience occurred at age 5 in the form of classical piano lessons, an event which held no interest for him until a later transgression was to have a profound impact; 'On Saturday afternoons I used to go down to Shepherd's Bush Market with a gang of friends and nick 78s from the stalls, one of the first records to vanish into my saddle bag was Jimmy Yancey's "Slow And Easy Blues".' The Powerful sound of Yancey's boogie-woogie playing transfixed Alexis and, from that moment forward, he seized every opportunity to develop his piano skills and his collection of boogie-woogie and blues records. Not content with learning experiences gleaned from shellac, Alexis seldom missed an opportunity to admire at first-hand those American bluesman – e.g. Big Bill Broonzy, Josh White – who visited England during subsequent years.
By 1949 Alexis had acquired rudimentary guitar skills and joined Chris Barber's amateur band which, in addition to its stock repertoire of New Orleans jazz associated with Kid Ory and King Oliver, included tunes by noted blues performers in Big Maceo Merryweather and Tampa Red. Alexis was present at the early 1950s birth of 'skiffle' – chiefly through his association with Ken Colyer – and in 1956 joined forces with Cyril Davies, a gifted exponent of harmonica and 12-string guitar who had generally been confined to playing banjo with London-based 'Trad' jazz bands. Alexis and Cyril shared the yearning to play 'proper' blues and one of their first moves was to close a successful skiffle venue, conducted from a room above the Roundhouse public house in Soho, only to immediately re-open it as The London Blues and Barrelhouse Club. Initial support for this change in musical direction was indifferent, although it was not long before the new club – and Alexis in particular – became a focal point for increasing numbers of blues enthusiasts who were the beneficiaries of his deftness for securing performances from visiting American blues and folk performers such as Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Rambling Jack Elliott.
Towards the close of 1961 Alexis formed Blues Incorporated – almost certainly the first white amplified blues group in the world – with Cyril Davies' pioneering harmonica skills to the fore. In search of a regular place to play Alexis and Cyril opened the Ealing Club in March 1962 where, on the opening night, guest vocalists included 19-year old Mick Jagger, Paul Jones and Art Wood. The considerable popularity of the Ealing Club appearances gained Blues Incorporated a surprise Thursday weekly residency at The Marquee Club in Oxford Street which, up to that point, had been a straight-ahead jazz stronghold.
June 1962 saw Blues Incorporated record the first big selling British Blues album "R&B From The Marquee" which, despite its title, was captured miles away in the relative sterility of Decca's West Hampstead studios. From its inception until its demise in late-1966 Blues Incorporator's constantly changing line-ups boasted a further array of young talent – e.g. Charlie Watts, Long John Baldry, Graham Bond, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Danny Thompson – which, after a period of apprenticeship alongside the inspirational Alexis, honed the skill and confidence to breakaway and form numerous successful ventures.
Aside from his band leadership duties, the early 1960's had Alexis in demand as a recording accompanist for visiting American bluesmen including Memphis Slim, James Cotton, Roosevelt Sykes and Curtis Jones. He was also a widely acknowledged expert in his beloved subject and hosted highly acclaimed BBC radio programmes of live sessions or records which ran for almost 20 years.
In September 1966, with the Blues Incorporated chapter having drawn to a close, Alexis turned his attentions to performing solo and with a short-lived trio called Free At Last. The trio – which served up a rather curious blend of blues and jazz – is generally remembered only for the fact that Alexis later bequeathed the 'Free' part of its name to a group of raw young musicians whom he had taken under his wing.
Now to the point where this double-set kicks off ..... In 1967 and 1968 Alexis' uncanny knack of identifying burgeoning talent was as sharp as ever, drafting in multi-instrumentalist Victor Brox for duo work and later – albeit briefly – Robert Plant, a powerful young singer and harmonica player from the Midlands who was growing increasingly frustrated in the search for success.
Once again, before either partnership had reached its potential, Alexis fell victim to both recruits departing for more commercially successful climbs. Brox succumbed to the lure of Aynsley Dunbar's Retaliation and Plant (who around September 1968 had already recorded Operator and Steel Away for an album with Alexis) accepted an irresistible invitation to elope to Led Zeppelin. In fact Steal Away includes a phrase repeated on Zeppelin's debut LP within "How Many More times" and serves to ably demonstrate the explosive entry that Plant was about make onto the rock scene.
Undeterred by these truncated projects, the spring of 1969 heralded Alexis Korner and The New Church, a blues/jazz/rock/gospel group which was baptised in Germany before making its English debut at the Rolling Stones free concert in Hyde Park in June 1969. The New Church embraced the youth of Alexis' 16-year old daughter Sappho on vocals and 17-year old Nick South on bass guitar, although both had departed prior to the September-October 1969 recording of the "Both Sides" album (Germany only) where Free's Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser stepped in to assist their mentor. The New Church survived with regular personnel changes until the end of 1970. The Collective Consciousness Society ('CCS' for short) then followed which featured the vocals of Alexis and Peter Thorup – another ex-member of The New Church – alongside a big band of session players for whom a role call would have read like a 'Who's Who' of British Jazz. CCS was a sporadic studio-based venture which finally came to a close in 1974, yet not before it had enjoyed album and singles chart successes with tunes like "Tap Turns On The Water" and "Walking".
Alexis had sufficient time available within the CCS schedule to go out on the road with Peter Thorup and, in the course of undertaking the role of support act for Humble Pie's first tour of America in early 1972, they frequently crossed paths with King Crimson who just happened to be in the States at the same time. At various points of the tour three members of Crimson took the opportunity to sit in with the duo and, before you know it, were sufficiently impressed to jump ship and announce a merger with Alexis and Thorup to form SNAPE. In typical fashion SNAPE's lifecycle was all too brief, although a 1973 studio album was issued – suitably titled "Accidentally Born In New Orleans" – which sadly failed to capture of its live performances. Alexis then reverted to playing solo or "with Friends" and in the mid-1973, with assistance from his SNAPE cohorts plus Zoot Money and Duster Bennet, recorded a polished album entitled "Alexis Korner" for which release was mysteriously confined to German territory. However, the follow-up album "Get Off My Cloud", committed in the summer of 1974, reached a much wider audience and received a good deal of media attention due to the inclusion of highly effective contributions from 'star' names Keith Richards, Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton.
During 1975, with promotional duties to fulfill for the release of "Get Off My Cloud", Alexis toured Germany with a jazz-fusion band called Back Door. The major force behind Back Door was the magnificently talented and versatile bass guitarist Colin Hodgkinson who's association with Alexis dated back to 1969 when he was briefly a member of The New Church.
The year to October 1977 was accounted for by recordings for the "Just Easy" album – generally disappointing project beset by all manner of studio and contractual problems – and then it was full steam ahead in the lead up to Alexis's 50th birthday. On April 19th 1978 the member of all parties took place at Pinewood Studios and although Alexis took some persuading before agreeing to the event, it is clear from the German TV footage of the time that he thoroughly enjoyed the chance to 'get it on' with old mates like Zoot Money, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Chris Farlowe, Duffy Power and a host of others representing the various stages of his career. Fortunately, for those who were not among the select cabal of invitees, the electric atmosphere was effectively captured on "The Party Album", thereby allowing many more fans to belatedly join in the celebration. Mess Of Blues and Hey Pretty Mama are included here for your delight, the later featuring Eric Clapton who was at that time battling through one of the more reclusive periods of his career.
In July 1979 Alexis returned to Germany for a 'direct-to-disc' session which yielded "Me" – his first totally solo album – and he seemed to relish the challenge of delivering his best efforts first time (the chosen recording technique rendering re-takes impossible). In fact, his laid-back approach certainly comes across on How Long Blues "...that's the blues, goofs and all".
The autumn of 1979 saw Alexis return to his first musical love –boogie-woogie- through occasional gigs with Rocket 88. Rocket 88 was a band started in 1978 by pianist Bob Hall which boasted an enviable (if nomadic) array of talent; at any one performance you could be lucky enough to see Alexis exercising his trademark gold Gibson alongside the likes of Jack Bruce, Charlie Watts and former 'Stones' Ian Stewart having a rolling good time tearing into tunes by Joe Turner and Pete Johnson.
At the close of 1979 Alexis and Colin Hodgkinson agreed to unite as a 'permanent' duo which went on to enjoy popular support, particularly in Germany and France. In May and June 1981 the partnership was temporarily augmented by Pete Sayers who added some excellent dobro and autoharp to studio recordings of four classic tunes about crashes and disasters. The recordings were targeted at the childrens market and intended for a subsequently aborted "Bedtime Gories" EP – complete with pop-up storybook –under the unlikely name of Schick and Fuz. More successful European outings followed for the duo, including a storming performance at the June 1982 Arbon Festival in Switzerland where the organizes had the foresight to capture the entire event on magnetic oxide. Big Boss Man and High Heeled Sneakers have been drawn from that performance for inclusion here and provided a fittingly upbeat finale to Disc 2.
1983 was to find Alexis making a number of solo performances, most notably at the Cambridge Folk Festival during August, although Coin Hodgkinson was back at his side again in October to record the "Juvenile Delinquent" album. However, Alexis had been experiencing acute health problems throughout the year and tragically, before the album had been completed, passed away on 1st January 1984 at the appallingly youthful age of 55. The music world had suffered the premature loss of a true visionary and to this day, there are many affected people who seldom pass up the opportunity to recount the inspirational impact he had.
© 1998 Mark Troster