Alexis Korner

Alexis Korner was the driving force of the 1960s British blues boom and an inspiration for many of the young R&B/rock artists who subsequently found international fame. Born in Paris to an Austrian Jewish father and a half-Turkish half-Greek mother, Korner grew up in France, Switzerland and North Africa, arriving in London in 1940 at the start of the Second World War. A record by pianist Jimmy Yancey converted him to blues and, taking up piano and guitar after the war, he joined Chris Barber's Jazz Band. In Barber's band he met Cyril Davies and they started performing together as a duo, launching the London Blues & Barrelhouse Club and recording their first record together. Korner went on to join Ken Colyer's Skiffle Group, playing mandolin, and was responsible for bringing many influential American blues acts to the UK on tour. In 1961 Korner and Cyril Davies formed the profoundly influential Blues Incorporated, who variously included Rod Stewart, Long John Baldry, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and members of The Rolling Stones. Davies left in 1963, but Korner continued Blues Incorporated for several years, though many of those the group inspired were by then far bigger names than Korner. He subsequently became a BBC radio presenter, but had further musical success in 1970 with the band CCS (Collectively Consciousness Society), who had a hit with Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love, the theme for BBC TV series Top Of The Pops. In 1973 he formed another band Snape and released his own album Get Off My Cloud with various guests, including Keith Richards, Peter Frampton and Nicky Hopkins. In 1981 he formed Rocket 88, involving Charlie Watts and Jack Bruce, but died of lung cancer in 1984.

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