British Blues-Rock Pioneer Keef Hartley, R.I.P.

The Lancashire Evening Post newspaper is reporting that British blues pioneer Keef Hartley passed away on Saturday, November 26, 2011 at the age of 67 years old. Hartley's cause of death has yet to be established.

Hartley is a little-known (stateside) but integral member of the British blues and blues-rock scene of the 1960s. Born Keith Hartley in 1944 in Preston, Lancashire England, the young drummer left home at 15 and became Ringo Starr's replacement in the Merseybeat band Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. He later honed his skills as a member of the London-based R&B outfit the Artwoods, playing with future Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord.

Hartley achieved some degree of prominence after joining John Mayall's Bluesbreakers in the mid-1960s. Hartley appeared on several Mayall albums, including 1967's often-overlooked Crusade (with a young, pre-Rolling Stones Mick Taylor on guitar) and The Blues Alone. He re-united with the Godfather of British Blues for 1971's Back To The Roots and 1973's Moving On and Ten Years Are Gone albums.

Hartley formed his own Keef Hartley Band in 1968 with talented Scottish singer and guitarist Miller Anderson (who would later play with Savoy Brown) and future Uriah Heap bassist Gary Thain, the band releasing its debut album, Half Breed, in 1969. The band performed at the Woodstock Festival later that year, but was cut from the commercially-successful documentary film, an omission that might have helped the band's stateside fortunes. The Keef Hartley Band released five albums of brilliant blues-and-jazz-influenced rock 'n' roll in three years, including 1970's The Time Is Near and 1971's Overdog. A sixth album, with contributions from John Mayall and singer Jess Roden, was recorded but remains unreleased.

After the Keef Hartley Band, the drummer put in a brief stint with British rock 'n' soul band Vinegar Joe, appearing on their 1972 album Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies alongside singers Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer. In 1973, Hartley would release his lone solo effort, Lancashire Hustler, with Palmer and Brooks providing backing vocals behind singer Roden, and the drummer would reunite with Anderson and former Artwoods bassist Derek Griffiths in the ill-fated hard rock band Dog Soldier, which released a single eponymous album in 1975. Hartley recorded and toured with Michael Chapman, and reportedly made a nice chunk of change for his (uncredited) playing on the soundtrack to the blockbuster movie Grease.

Hartley disappeared from music in the 1980s, working as a cabinet maker and refurbishing recording studios. He released a biography titled Halfbreed (A Rock and Roll Journey That Happened Against All the Odds) in 2007, writing about his youth and career. In recent years, young blues-rock fans in both the U.S. and the U.K. have re-discovered the Keef Hartley Band, and virtually all of the band's albums have been re-issued. As both a bandleader and as part of Mayall's seminal Bluesbreakers, Keef Hartley's influence is inestimable.

Photo courtesy Esoteric Records