Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated
At the Cavern

The one whom Rolling Stone called "the great father of it all" was named Alexis Korner, the greatest European bluesman, the inventor of British blues (young, white, and emphatically amplified). As is usually the case when someone of great stature takes the heavenly road, perhaps there is exaggeration, perhaps too much emphasis is placed on the emotions of the moment, perhaps one also forgets that it unjustly took Alexis Korner twelve years to enter an official chart with a track, and not even as a composer but as an arranger and performer, twelve years from that fateful date. It was 1961, and the adventure of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated began at that time; a "Made in England" band, among the first to play electric blues in a musically confused London. But in that span of time, he accomplished much, hosting dozens of musicians who would become idols of English beat, pop, and jazz in that open formation dedicated to the sublime blend of rhythm & blues, jazz, and African-American blues. Just to mention the most famous alumni, the bassist Jack Bruce, the drummer Charlie Watts, the saxophonist Dick Heckstall Smith, and the singer Mick Jagger, the list could go on, but the names given are already enough. There was initially little space for this musical importation, for Korner's genius on the electric guitar, and for his hoarse voice that could be recognized among thousands; not even a venue other than a dive would host Korner and company, thus they ended up playing in smoky basements, abandoned shops, obscure venues in rundown Liverpool, with a half-weekly appearance (spring of 1962) among jazz aficionados at the Marquee in London. Part of these historic performances, recorded live, ended up on the long-playing record R&B from the Marquee, a historical document before being a masterpiece. It features all the hottest early arrangements and his virgin compositions with a lineup that screams legend: the harmonica player Cyril Davies first and foremost, already with Korner since the '40s, then the pianist Keith Scott, the tenor sax Heckstall Smith, the drummer Graham Burbidge, the bassist Spike Heatley, and the singer Jim Baldry. Music far too refined dedicated to the audience associated with the National Jazz Federation, and here one finds the true essence of the "Blues Incorporated" in a second live album, this time recorded at the Cavern in Liverpool on February 23, 1964. The sound this time is literally raw but more real, more in tune with the spirit of the very first lineup envisioned by Korner and Davies. Above all, one hears his voice, the guttural throat of the true bluesman, and that's why I preferred to review Live at the Cavern, rarely mentioned in the artist's monographs. This time the lineup is different, Davies' harmonica has disappeared due to the premature death of his friend, Korner is more present than ever with his versatile guitar finally "fuzzed", the double bass of Vernon Brown dictates a heavy rhythm together with the drums of Michael Scott, prominently featured is the Hammond organ of Malcolm Saul and the alto sax of Dave Castle. And thus, in just under forty minutes of true magic, one finally approaches the genuine themes of the African-American tradition, expertly readapted to the white context, still for few and thus an intimate creative process before transductive, sincere, and with a skill rarely found elsewhere. The best tracks from the second Korner moment, already entirely oriented towards creating a new genre, are amply present: "Overdrive", "Whoa Babe", "Herbie's Tune" with the pyrotechnic voice of the great leader, while in the always personal "Every Day I Have the Blues", the black singer Herbie Goins of the Soultimers vocally intervenes. In addition to the personal repertoire, the classic versions "Hoochie Coochie Man" from the immortal Muddy Waters repertoire, "Little Bitty Gal Blues" from the duets between the resounding voice of Joe Turner and the slow boogie piano of Pete Johnson, the classic "Kansas City" resumed by the entire beat-rock generation, and to conclude, the definitive rock'n'roll version of "Well All Right, O.K. You Win". Korner and company pose as ideal transducers of a pleasure that becomes collective from being personal, transforming a genuine passion for black blues into an innovation that remains in history books to this day, certainly a few steps below the years of splendor and glory of American blues, the true, the classical, the jazzy one, from which white English and American musicians drew without subtracting anything improperly, indeed regenerating the genre to launch it forever into the future.