Blues Incorporated
Blues Incorporated was formed in 1962 by Cyril Davies and
Alexis Korner with the amazing line-up of Charlie Watts on
drums, Jack Bruce on bass, Keith Scott on piano and Dick
Heckstall-Smith on saxophone, with vocals by Long John Baldry
and Ronnie Jones.
They secured a residency at the Marquee Club 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, released in late
1962.
The album was actually recorded in the Decca studio and
featured Baldry as lead singer with songs by Muddy Waters, Jimmy
Witherspoon and Leroy Carr.
Alexis Korner is often called the daddy of them all in
Britain - and with good reason. Among the artists who have
worked in Korner's bands since he formed the first version of
Blues Incorporated are; Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts,
Ginger Baker, Brian Jones, Graham Bond, Keith Richard, Jack
Bruce, Eric Burdon, Long John Baldry, Cyril Davies and Zoot
Money.
In 1968 Robert Plant worked as half of a duo with Korner
before joining Led Zeppelin, and from the late Sixties Korner
worked solo bringing along many famous friends to help him.
Alexis was playing a blues spot in the Chris Barber Band as
early as 1948 and was part of The Ken Colyer Skiffle Group of
the early 50s. He was largely responsible for wooing American
bluesmen to Britain in the late 50s and developing the whole
blues scene there.
Ironically his greatest commercial success was not with the
blues but with the rock-big band sound of CCS which had a big
hit in 1971 with their version of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta
Love - which was subsequently used as the theme tune to
television's Top Of The Pops.
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