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Subject: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy Date: 25 Apr 02 - 11:15 AM was browsing through the Lonnie Donegan thread, and came upon the (pretty accurate, I think) comment, 'No Lonnie, No Beatles' which got me thinking, so I did a search, and was dumbfounded, stammergastered, flummoxed, knock-me-over-with-a-feather, still can't believe it, there is no thread archived that contains this man's name? On a (supposedly) predominantly Blues oriented site? No Alexis Koerner/Blues Incorporated, no Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no Animals, no Yardbirds no Led Zeppelin no Rod Stewart maybe no Them/Van Morrison no British Invasion at all & no gigs for Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, etc. & no career for hundreds of American blues musicians I say long live Alexis Koerner and thanks. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy Date: 25 Apr 02 - 11:23 AM yes, and of course Chris Barber gets a lot of credit as well, but where is Alexis in Mudcat? no Long John Baldry, Eric Clapton, the list goes on |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: mooman Date: 25 Apr 02 - 11:35 AM Surprising, I've mentioned them all several times myself over the two or three years I've been here and have seen many threads that have mentioned all these fine musicians... Best regards, mooman |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Watson Date: 25 Apr 02 - 11:43 AM I was about to be a smart arse and say that you might find something if you spell the name right (Korner), but even then, there's nothing there. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,Stringman Date: 25 Apr 02 - 11:50 AM That name is a blast form the blast and a grea one. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,Martin Date: 25 Apr 02 - 11:52 AM His UK sunday night radio show has still not been equaled. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Cappuccino Date: 25 Apr 02 - 12:43 PM I remember seeing him at one the big shows of the late 60s - Stones live in the park. It was only then I realised how important a guy he was. It took me years to appreciate him fully. - ian B |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy Date: 25 Apr 02 - 12:58 PM Mooman, it's not all the other musicians not in the DT Threads, it's Alexis himself who's missing. The Lonnie Donegan thread stated no Lonnie Donegan, no Beatles. My statement was No Alexis Koerner, No all the other musicians and situations mentioned. Not that all the other names are not in postings. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: okthen Date: 25 Apr 02 - 01:24 PM What an amazing guy he was, only they will know how much help he was to Davey Graham (as a friend and musician). His radio programme was eclectic and I heard loads of stuff for the first time through him (Sam Chatmon and Terry Allen and the panhandle mystery band for instance). His speaking voice was velvet smooth and so upper class without being snobbish. The man had style, sorry, that should read STYLE. Strange to think I used to live on Eel Pie Island where where all those guys started out. Such sad nostalgia this. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy Date: 25 Apr 02 - 01:37 PM No ALexis Koerner then... can't omit No John Mayall No Cream etc. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Les Jones Date: 25 Apr 02 - 02:20 PM I hate to be a pain, but the Beatles drew on many, many influences, ealy Motown, Chicargo Blues, Country, English Music Hall, Paul's Dad, Johns Mum ............. which they were very keen to acknowledge.
Alexis was crucial to blues and rock. And so was Lonnie in a different way, he was charming and picked good songs. He also showed that music (in this case skiffle) could be played and created by us all. The second folk revival was greatly informed and powered by that egalitarian idea.
Martin Carthy stills plays the guitar (sorry a Martin) that he bought from Alexis Korner in the 60's. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: mooman Date: 25 Apr 02 - 05:57 PM Sorry Bill...confused as usual! mooman |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: mooman Date: 25 Apr 02 - 05:58 PM P.S. I remember him well...a huge influence on so many. mooman |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: John Routledge Date: 25 Apr 02 - 06:05 PM In Buxton (UK) there is (was?) an annual Alexis Korner Memorial Concert. A couple of years ago I saw an amazingly rejuvenated Eric Burdon who was the star of a 5 1/2 Hr concert. What a memorial.
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: greg stephens Date: 25 Apr 02 - 08:27 PM A personal memory: Alexis Korner was atremendous influence on me as a kid.From fifteen years old on I would visit there and he spent loads of time and attention showing me guitar licks, playing me records, telling me stories of blues musicians he knew. A fantastic educationalexperience. He helped so many young musicians like me, his influence on the UK blues, folk and rock world was incalculable. A great gentleman of the old school. I spend a lotof time now teaching youngsters tunes and telling them stories because Alexis showed me what an important thing that is. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: fat B****rd Date: 26 Apr 02 - 05:47 AM What a lovely bloke he was. He came with his blues trio to our club in Grimsby. Absolutely charming and a great show.Definitely a huge influence on British Music. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: greg stephens Date: 29 Apr 02 - 06:15 AM I doubt if you could find a single modern British or American folk or rock musician who couldnt trace big chunks of their lineage back to the Holy Trinity of Alexis Korner, Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan. Many musicians may be quite unaware of this bit of their ancestry but it's there, all the same. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,Bill Kennedy Date: 29 Apr 02 - 09:21 AM Greg, my point exactly, which is why I was so surprised Alexis hadn't come up in a thread search. Great to hear everyone's memories of him, would like to hear more. I only know him through his recordings. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: RolyH Date: 29 Apr 02 - 02:04 PM From 'Blues - Keeping the Faith' by Keith Shadwick Korner was born in Paris (1928) and came to England with his family in 1939 as Hitler's armies were poised to invade the rest of Europe.At the end of WW 2 Korner started out his life in music as a confirmed jazz fan,graduating to blues and its offshoots by the begining of the 1950's,Korner gradually came to see that much of what was being played was hardly authentic.A spell in the Chris Barber Band - like him a man with real erudition on the subject of jazz and blues - during this time gave Korner a clear pointer a to the direction he wished to pursue.Along with the blues enthusiast and harp player,Cyril Davies,he founded the London Blues and Barrelhouse Club,an important meeting place for like minded souls.By 1961 he had formed Blues Incorperated with Davies(although the latter was to leave within a year),which quickly became a fixture at London's Marquee Club.Over the next six years the band was to employ a galaxy of talent,including half of the Rolling Stones,Long John Baldry,Jack Bruce,Ginger Baker,Paul Jones and Graham Bond.While his erstwhile employees mostlty left to find fame and riches,Korner plied his blues and R&B trail to mediocre success.Blues Inc.was discontinued in 1967 and although Korner ran other bands after that,it was under his own name that he mostly performed from then on.Branching out,Korner appeared on television and had a long running radio show in London during the 1970's and 1980's.He continued to play with varying line ups up to his death,from cancer,in 1984. Top Man |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,michael batory Date: 02 May 02 - 04:48 AM Don't forget that great pianist Johnny Parker. He worked with AK for a while and was the man responsible for that great piano intro and solo on Humphrey Lyttleton's "Bad Penny Blues". This, incidentally, was engineered ( some might claim -produced ) by Joe Meek. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Lanfranc Date: 02 May 02 - 07:38 PM And "Bad Penny Blues" transmogrified into the Beatles' "Lady Madonna"! Wasn't Korner a heriditary count or some form of nobility (apart from his inherent nobility!) Alan |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST,mike leatt Date: 28 Jul 03 - 08:42 PM R & B at the |Marquis ( in London) is a landmark LP. Sadly Cyril Davis died of cancer but his contribution lives on although it is very hard to find. He had 2 singles on the Chess label in the U.K. which were later released as an E.P. I also think there is an L P made up from other material but have been unable to track it. Does anybody know what this LP is called and if there is any CD for Cyril available ? |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: TheBigPinkLad Date: 29 Jul 03 - 04:53 PM The only album I had with AK on it was a sampler from the early 70s. It was blue and had a melted doll on the cover and had tracks by Blue Cheer (Summertime blues) and Dissimilartude and a band that did a song called "Goodnight Zelda Grebe, the telephone company has cut us off." AK did a song called "Who will the next fool be?" Anyone remember that album? |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: CraigS Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:52 PM One feels that it is necessary to remind you all that Alexis was the force behind CCS, who did the instrumental version of Whole Lotta Love that was used as the theme tune for Top Of The Pops on BBC1, and the immortal and humorous Tap Turns On The Water, which was composed and sung by Alexis. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Steve Parkes Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:00 AM Wot, no Ken Collyer? I happened upon my uncle's collection of 10" lps years ago, when I didn't even know he liked jazz. The personnel in Collyer's 1950s band read like a Who's Who? of British jazz: AK on guitar, Lonnie Donnegan on banjo, Bert (now Acker, of course) Bilk or Monty Sunshine on clarinet, Chris Barber on trombone ... all before they were famous. Steve |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: John MacKenzie Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:23 AM This thread ties so many other threads, both of my life and of Mudcat. I used to see Alexis at Les Cousins in the 60s, along with other great blues players. Moxie a great blues harp player mentioned in another thread also used to play there. I lived in Richmond upon Thames in those days, and of course went to Eel Pie Island, where I saw and heard Cyril Davies. His recording of Country Line special was on the juke-box in a great cafe hangout in Richmond called L'Auberge, and it was there until it wore out, along with Cream discs, and the great John Mayall et al. Link to site with Eel Pie memories Here is another link to people and faces from Richmond in the 60s Richmond |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Dave Sutherland Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:20 AM Three books(if they are still in print)give an excellent insight into the life and work of the great man. Harry Shapiro's "Alexis Korner", "Blues-The British Connection" by Bob Brunning and his former collegue Dick Heckstall-Smith's "The Safest Place In The World". This might be a first mention for the brilliant D.H-S as well |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: BanjoRay Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:42 AM I have three old unlabelled tapes I made in the early sixties of stuff to do with folk music in Aberystwyth university. One of them contains a long interview we held with Alexis Korner for the Courier, the college magazine, when he played there. I have no means of playing it or copying it at present. Anyone prepared to have a bash at turning it into a CD or at least transcribing it? Cheers Ray |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Roger the Skiffler Date: 30 Jul 03 - 09:37 AM Steve, you know I don't like to be pedantic (but I wish some mudelf would change the spelling in this thread head!) but it's Ken Colyer (one L) the true founder of the British skiffle craze. Most British trad jazz players of that era started with either Ken or the George Webb band or escaped from the big dance bands. Most of the 60s British blues artists, even the Rolling Stones, played with or were influenced by Alexis Korner. RtS (when I were a lad...) |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Steve Parkes Date: 30 Jul 03 - 09:41 AM When you were a lad, Roger, I hadn't been born! Took me most of the morning to remember his ame at all, let alone spell it ... |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:49 PM heloo,you,spelled,korner,wrong.john anyway,i,used,to,listesn,to,him,on, sunday,nigt,on,radiom1,it,was,good,,. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: GUEST Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:55 PM More stink in the ground though a little less on it. |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: greg stephens Date: 12 Jan 04 - 11:39 AM refresh |
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Subject: RE: Alexis Koerner From: PoppaGator Date: 12 Jan 04 - 01:01 PM When I saw the (newer) thread names "Alexis Korner," I was sure that his name had been misspelled. Interesting to learn the "Korner" is correct. I'm pretty sure that the incorrect "Koerner" made its way into print early and often -- perhaps more prevalent in the US than the correct "Korner." Any opinions? I think the best way to rephrase what was said way back at the begining of this would go: No Lonnie, no Beatles; no Alexis, no Stones (or Bluesbreakers, or Cream, etc. etc., etc.). I'm not sure that these two British guys were as indespensible to the emergence of interest in folk and blues music in the states as in the UK. Of course, it would be impossible to tell what the worldwide scene would have been like without them, but here on the righthand side of the Atlantic, we had the Lomaxes, Leadbelly, Pete and Woody, even folks like JJ Niles and Dyer-Bennet, etc etc *before* Lonnie and Alexis, and many others either earlier than them or independent of any transatlantic influence. |
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