Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated, or simply Blues Incorporated, were an English blues band formed in London in 1961, led by

Alexis Korner Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major in ...

and including at various times

Jack Bruce John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of British rock band Cream. After the group disband ...

, Charlie Watts,

Terry Cox Terence William Harvey 'Terry' Cox (born 13 March 1937, in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire) played drums in the British folk rock bands The Pentangle, Duffy's Nucleus and Humblebums. He also drummed with several other artists, most notably D ...

Davy Graham David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners ...

Ginger Baker Peter Edward "Ginger" Baker (19 August 1939 – 6 October 2019) was an English drummer. His work in the 1960s and 1970s earned him the reputation of "rock's first superstar drummer", for a style that melded jazz and African rhythms and pi ...

Art Wood Arthur Wood (7 July 1937 – 3 November 2006) was a British blues, pop and rock singer, who led The Artwoods in the 1960s and subsequently became a graphic artist. He was the brother of Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones. Life Born in 193 ...

Long John Baldry John William "Long John" Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English musician and actor. In the 1960s, he was one of the first British vocalists to sing the blues in clubs and shared the stage with many British musicians including ...

, Ronnie Jones,

Danny Thompson Daniel Henry Edward Thompson (born 4 April 1939) is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson and John Mart ...

Graham Bond Graham John Clifton Bond (28 October 1937 – 8 May 1974) was an English rock/blues musician and vocalist, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s. Bond was an innovator, described as "an important, und ...

, Cyril Davies,

Malcolm Cecil Malcolm Cecil (9 January 193728 March 2021) was a British jazz bassist, record producer, engineer and electronic musician. He was a founding member of a leading UK jazz quintet of the late 1950s, the Jazz Couriers,

Dick Heckstall-Smith Richard Malden Heckstall-Smith (26 September 1934 – 17 December 2004) was an English jazz and blues saxophonist. He played with some of the most influential English blues rock and jazz fusion bands of the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for pri ...

and

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

History

Korner (1928–1984) was a member of Chris Barber's Jazz Band in the 1950s, and met up with Cyril Davies (1932–1964) who shared his passion for American blues. In 1954 they teamed up as a duo, began playing blues in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

jazz clubs, and opened their own club, the

London Blues and Barrelhouse Club The London Blues and Barrelhouse Club ran between 1957 and 1961 at the Round House public house at the junction of Wardour Street and Brewer Street in Soho, London. Established by Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner, it hosted many visiting Americ ...

, where they featured visiting bluesmen from America. The club embraced aspiring young musicians, including in its early days Charlie Watts,

, and

. In 1961 Korner and Davies formed Blues Incorporated, the first amplified R&B band in Britain, and brought in singer Baldry (sometimes replaced by

), drummer Watts, bassist Bruce, and

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

. It was an informal band: its membership was intended to be fluid. On 17 March 1962, Korner and Davies established a regular "Rhythm and Blues Night" at the

Ealing Jazz Club Ealing Jazz Club was a music venue in Ealing, west London, England, which opened in 1959. It became London's first regular blues venue, with performances by the Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies band Blues Incorporated. History Ealing Jazz Club ...

. This brought together many more fans of blues and R&B music including

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...

, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Paul Jones, John Mayall,

Zoot Money George Bruno Money (born 17 July 1942) is an English vocalist, keyboardist and bandleader. He is best known for his playing of the Hammond organ and association with his Big Roll Band. Inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles, he was draw ...

, and Jimmy Page, some of whom would occasionally sit in on Blues Incorporated performances. Watts left the group around this time to join the Rolling Stones and suggested Ginger Baker as his replacement. From 3 May 1962, Blues Incorporated secured a Thursday-night residency at the

Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue first located at 165 Oxford Street in London, when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. Its most famous period was from 1964 to 1988 at 90 Wardour Street in Soho, and it finally closed wh ...

, which brought them to the attention of record producer and promoter Jack Good who arranged a recording contract with Decca Records resulting in the LP ''

R&B from the Marquee ''R&B from the Marquee'' is an album by Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated released in November 1962 on Decca Records. Blues Incorporated was a British rhythm and blues band in the early 1960s. Although never very successful commercially, it ...

'', released in late 1962. The album was actually recorded in the Decca studio and featured Baldry as lead singer with songs by

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago ...

Jimmy Witherspoon James Witherspoon (August 8, 1920 – September 18, 1997) was an American jump blues singer. Early life, family and education Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. His father was a railroad worker who sang in local choirs, and his mot ...

and

Leroy Carr Leroy Carr (March 27, 1904 or 1905 – April 29, 1935) was an American blues singer, songwriter and pianist who developed a laid-back, crooning technique and whose popularity and style influenced such artists as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles. Mus ...

. Late in 1962 Davies disagreed with Korner's intention to add a brass section to the band and turn more towards jazz than blues, so left to form his own group, the Cyril Davies All-Stars, and was replaced by Graham Bond. Blues Incorporated found a new residency at the Flamingo club but, shortly afterwards, Bond, Bruce and Baker left to form the

Graham Bond Organisation The Graham Bond Organisation (GBO) were a British jazz/rhythm and blues group of the early 1960s consisting of Graham Bond (vocals, keyboards, alto-saxophone), Jack Bruce (bass), Ginger Baker (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith (tenor/soprano saxoph ...

. Blues Incorporated concentrated on live work rather than recording and the group only released two singles on

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

, "I Need Your Loving" / "Please Please Please Please" (1964) and "Little Baby" / "Roberta" (1965). In 1964 they released the LPs ''At The Cavern'' and ''Red Hot From Alex'', with American

Herbie Goins Hubert Leroy "Herbie" Goins (February 21, 1939 – October 27, 2015) was an American rhythm & blues singer. He worked mainly in England in the 1960s, notably with Alexis Korner and then as the leader of Herbie Goins & The Night-Timers (or N ...

as lead singer and Danny Thompson, later of Pentangle, on bass. By the time of the group's last album ''Sky High'' (credited to Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated) in 1965, the group included

Duffy Power Duffy Power (born Raymond Leslie Howard; 9 September 1941 – 19 February 2014) was an English blues and rock and roll singer, who achieved some success in the 1960s and continued to perform and record intermittently later. Career Ray Howard w ...

on vocals. Korner dissolved the group in 1966.

Discography

* ''

'' (1962) * ''Red Hot From Alex'' (1964) * ''At The Cavern'' (1964) * ''Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated'' (1965) * ''Sky High'' (1965)

Bibliography

* Bob Brunning (1986) ''Blues: The British Connection'', London: Helter Skelter, 2002, * Bob Brunning, ''The Fleetwood Mac Story: Rumours and Lies'' (Omnibus Press, 2004, foreword by B.B.King *

(2004) ''The safest place in the world: A personal history of British Rhythm and blues'', Clear Books, - First Edition : ''Blowing The Blues - Fifty Years Playing The British Blues'' * Christopher Hjort ''Strange brew: Eric Clapton and the

British blues British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s, and reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s. In Britain, it developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric gu ...

boom, 1965-1970'', foreword by John Mayall, Jawbone (2007) * Harry Shapiro ''Alexis Korner: The Biography'', Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London 1997, Discography by Mark Troster

References

External links

Blues Incorporated on Cyril Davies fan site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blues Incorporated English rock music groups British blues musical groups Musical groups established in 1961 Musical groups disestablished in 1966 British rhythm and blues boom musicians British rhythm and blues musical groups Parlophone artists Decca Records artists Transatlantic Records artists 1961 establishments in England 1966 disestablishments in England