Alexis Korner

The early-1960s British blues scene might well have arisen even in Alexis Korner’s absence, yet the version that ultimately launched the Rolling Stones, shaped Eric Clapton’s first steps, and opened doors for John Mayall would almost certainly never have materialized. Of mixed Turkish, Greek, and Austrian ancestry, Korner passed his first ten years in France, Switzerland, and North Africa before reaching London in May 1940, precisely as the German blitz began—an event that coincided with his discovery of American blues. One indelible teenage recollection was hearing blues pianist Jimmy Yancey while bombs fell; “From then on,” he later told an interviewer, “all I wanted to do was play the blues.”

Once the war ended, Korner took up piano and then guitar. He experimented with electric blues in 1947, found the era’s pick-ups unsatisfactory, and reverted to acoustic instruments. Joining Chris Barber’s Jazz Band in 1949, he moved two years later into the expanded Ken Colyer Jazz Group after its merger with Barber’s ensemble. During this period he encountered Cyril Davies, a guitarist and harmonica player whose complementary passion for American blues prompted the pair to perform as an electric duo from 1954 onward. They established the London Blues and Barrelhouse Club, which soon showcased visiting American blues artists and drew enthusiasts from across England.

Their first recording appeared in 1957. In early 1962 the duo formed Blues Incorporated, an all-star unit built around Korner on guitar and vocals, Davies on harmonica and vocals, Ken Scott on piano, and Dick Heckstall-Smith on saxophone. Drummers Charlie Watts or Graham Burbridge, bassists Spike Heatley or Jack Bruce, and guest singers such as Long John Baldry, Ronnie Jones, and Art Wood rotated through the lineup. Because most London jazz venues barred them, the group opened its own club in March 1962, quickly attracting young crowds that included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Brian Jones, who all sat in, along with Ian Stewart, Steve Marriott, Paul Jones, and Manfred Mann. By May the band held a weekly residency at the Marquee Club, where audiences swelled further; John Mayall later cited these performances as the spark for his own Bluesbreakers.

Record companies took note, and producer Jack Good captured a June 1962 Marquee show that became R&B from the Marquee—the first long-playing album by a British blues group—issued that November and consisting chiefly of Willie Dixon covers plus a handful of originals. Around the same moment Davies departed over Korner’s wish to incorporate horns. Korner continued, but the 1963 British rock explosion and the ensuing success of bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Yardbirds left his more purist approach commercially sidelined. While former associates the Rolling Stones and Cream dominated international coverage, Korner remained confined to the blues columns of the British music press and was cast, though still under forty, as an “elder statesman.”

He hosted the children’s television program Five O’Clock Club, thereby introducing another generation to American blues and jazz, and contributed blues journalism while criticizing the extended solos and Chicago-centric commercialism of late-1960s blues-rock. He also recorded, beginning an unfinished 1968 project with future Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. Domestic opportunities stayed modest, yet European, especially Scandinavian, audiences remained large, and fresh releases continued to appear. During one Scandinavian tour Korner met vocalist Peter Thorup, who joined him in the band New Church; after leaving the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones was considered for the group but rejected to avoid controversy. In 1972 Korner absorbed Boz Burrell, Mel Collins, and Ian Wallace following their exit from King Crimson.

The 1970s brought Korner’s sole major commercial success when he and Thorup led the twenty-five-piece CCS. Their cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” reached the British charts, prompting a tour and television spots. Korner responded with Bootleg Him, a compilation drawn from his private tapes that featured Robert Plant, Mick Jagger, and Charlie Watts. He appeared on B.B. King in London and recorded the similar Get Off My Cloud with Keith Richards, Peter Frampton, Nicky Hopkins, and members of Joe Cocker’s Grease Band. When Mick Taylor departed the Rolling Stones in 1975, Korner was rumored as a replacement before Ron Wood was chosen. For Korner’s fiftieth birthday in 1978 an all-star concert with Eric Clapton, Paul Jones, Chris Farlowe, and Zoot Money was filmed and later issued.

In 1981 he assembled Rocket 88, featuring Korner on guitar, Jack Bruce on upright bass, Ian Stewart on piano, and Charlie Watts on drums, augmented by trombonists, saxophonists, and extra keyboardists. The ensemble toured Europe and released a self-titled Atlantic album drawn from live dates, emphasizing W. C. Handy and Pete Johnson material rather than blues-rock fusion. After a well-received Cambridge Folk Festival set in the early eighties, speculation arose about renewed activity, yet declining health intervened. A lifelong smoker, Korner succumbed to lung cancer in early 1984.