Alexis Korner

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Alexis Korner
Background information
Birth name	Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner
Born	April 19, 1928
Died	January 1, 1984
Genre(s)	Blues
Occupation(s)	Musician, Songwriter, Historian, Broadcaster
Instrument(s)	Guitar, Vocals
Associated acts	C. C. S.

Alexis Korner (born Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, April 19, 1928 in Paris - died January 1, 1984 in Westminster, London), was an English blues musician, born to an Austrian father and Greek mother.[1]

Alexis Korner is probably better remembered as a networker and blues historian, alhough he was a proficient guitarist and a distinctive (if not accomplished) vocalist. Often referred to as "the Father of British Blues", Korner was instrumental in bringing together various English blues musicians, such as John Mayall as well as Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who went on to form the Rolling Stones. This facet is especially evident in his live recordings which read as a veritable who's who of the British music scene of the 60s and 70s.

He also brought previously unknown American blues artists to England to perform. There is an apocryphal story that the Rolling Stones went to stay at Korner's house late one night, in the early '60s, after a performance. They entered in the accepted way, by climbing in through the kitchen window, to find Muddy Waters' band sleeping on the kitchen floor.

Always a blues purist, Korner criticised better-known British blues musicians, during the blues boom of the late '60s, for their blind adherence to Chicago blues, as if the music came in no other form.

Ironically, he would have his greatest commercial success in the early 1970s with a jazz-rock band called C. C. S. - short for The Collective Consciousness Society, formed with musical director John Cameron, singer Peter Thorup and record producer Mickie Most. They had hits with "Walkin'", "Tap Turns on the Water", "Brother" which later became the theme tune to the Top 20 (later Top 40) on BBC Radio 1, "The Band Played the Boogie", and the best-remembered, an instrumental version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". This version was used for many years as the theme music for the BBC television show "Top Of The Pops". It is said that Jimmy Page found out about this new singer, Robert Plant, that had been jamming with the well respected Alexis (who wondered why Robert had not yet been discovered). Robert, Alexis, and Steve Miller were in the process of recording a full album with Plant on vocals until Jimmy had asked him to join "the New Yardbirds" aka Led Zeppelin. Only two songs are in circulation of these recordings: "Steal Away" and "Operator".

After they disbanded in 1974 he formed another group, Snape. In the late seventies he often reunited with several musicians from the "old days" for jam sessions, including the informal fun band "Rocket 88". In his last years, he turned more to broadcasting, and presented a weekly blues and soul show for BBC Radio 1 until a few weeks before his admission to hospital and eventual death from cancer.

CCS - Whole Lotta Love excerpt (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- An excerpt from the C. C. S. version of Whole Lotta Love
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