Without a doubt, Alexis Korner is one of the most important and influential of British blues musicians. Although his work as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist would later be overshadowed by his many protégés, Korner's importance lays in his recognition of talent, and his trailblazing role as the artist who helped introduce the blues to the United Kingdom. Members of Korner's Blues Incorporated band would go on to form such groundbreaking outfits as the Rolling Stones, Free, the Animals, Free, and Led Zeppelin, among other bands.
Alexis Korner's Bootleg Him!
Korner's Bootleg Him! compiles material from roughly the first decade of the artist's career, ranging from the early 1960s through the early 1970s. As the story goes, his record label wished to capitalize on Korner's status as an elder statesman of British blues by coaxing him to put together a "supersession" with his former band members. Korner, to his credit, refused and instead turned over a wealth of tapes covering 1961-1967 with the agreement that an album comprised of this vintage material should be accompanied by an album of more recent recordings. The result was Bootleg Him!, originally released as a two-album set…something old, something new, something borrowed, and a lot of blues, as it were...
Because the provenance of material on Bootleg Him! varies so greatly, so too does the sound quality, which ranges from fair to very good by modern standards. What doesn't vary, however, is the uniform quality of the album's 20 performances. A mix of Korner originals and classic blues, R&B, and jazz covers of the likes of Willie Dixon, Billy Boy Arnold, Charles Mingus, Robert Johnson, and Curtis Mayfield, among others, Korner is backed on many of the performances by a top-notch collection of British jazz musicians. The bandleader did enlist the help of some of his former band members, however, and folks like Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Free's Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser, and Cream's Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker drop by to jam.
Blues Incorporated
Bootleg Him! offers up so many entertaining performances that it's really hard to boil them down to a mere handful for review. A live vamp on Willie Dixon's "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" by Blues Incorporated, circa 1962, features Cyril Davies – another important British blues figure – on vocals, backed by Korner's imaginative fretwork, Jack Bruce's thumping string bass, Dave Stevens' piano pounding, and Charlie Watts' subtle drumbeats and brushwork. If not for Davies' slight accent, the song wouldn't have sounded unusual booming out of a Southside Chicago blues club at the time. Korner's original slow-blues number "I Wonder Who" kicks out some tasty, jazz-inflected six-string work by the bluesman, the song's languid pace blown up by Chris Pyne and John Surman's horn blasts.
An acute take of Charlie Mingus's "Oh Lord Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me" transforms the jazz legend's song into a horn-driven portrait of the blues, with flecks of guitar and passionate vocals accompanied by wide swaths of Pyne's trombone, the entire affair supported by Danny Thompson's steady bass lines. Korner's original "Rockin'" does exactly that, the song a curious mix of jump blues and rockabilly (or perhaps skiffle, the British blue suede equivalent) with a solid backbone provided by the Bruce/Baker rhythm section, augmented by Johnny Parker's reckless honky-tonk piano and some truly swinging saxplay from Graham Bond and Dick Heckstall-Smith.
Alexis Korner & Peter Thorup
By the late 1960s, Korner had hooked up with the talented vocalist and guitarist Peter Thorup, the two artists collaborating together in a number of bands, including the memorable C.C.S. Prior to that, however, Korner and Thorup got together in 1969 for a phenomenal reading of Curtis Mayfield's underplayed R&B gem "Mighty-Mighty Spade & Whitey." With Free/Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers joining the two on vocals, the trio's harmonies are complimented by a soulful full horn section blowing away throughout the mix, fluid rhythms by Free bassist Andy Fraser and drummer John Marshall providing the underlying groove.
By comparison, a 1967 take on Joe Tex's "The Love You Save" features Korner's gruff, effective vocals and emotional guitar, accompanied only by Victor Brox's Chicago blues-styled piano play. A cover of Mance Lipscomb's "Evil Hearted Woman" features the trio of Korner, Thorup, and bassist Colin Hodgkinson. Korner's growling vocals bring a bit of menace to the Texas blues song, while Thorup's nimble fretwork is amazing.
Hellhound On My Trail
Legend has it that Korner had been working with vocalist Robert Plant on an album before the singer was poached by Jimmy Page for Led Zeppelin. "Operator" is one of two tracks to surface from those 1968 sessions, and it's a scorcher, for sure. Plant displays some of the vocal bombast he would bring to Zep, while Korner's acoustic guitar adds a bit of Delta dirt to this powerful acoustic blues number.
A 1970 recording of Korner's "Sunrise" by C.C.S. – a 20+ piece blues/jazz outfit – is every bit as remarkable, mixing psychedelic rock with free jazz and bluesy undertones to great effect. Bootleg Him! closes with an acoustic reading of Robert Johnson's "Hellhound On My Trail" by Korner and Thorup, the song's original dark hue supplanted by an almost joyful, guitar-driven performance by the duo.The Reverend's Bottom Line
Alexis Korner's reputation as the "Father of British Blues" is unquestioned in the U.K. but sadly he remains a relatively unknown, behind-the-scenes figure in the United States. Bootleg Him! may be an "odds and sods" collection of tape ends, live performances, and radio broadcasts, but it showcases the width and breadth of Korner's interest in blues, jazz, and blues-rock music. Thanks to the handful of Korner reissues that have trickled out through the years, stateside blues fans have been able to rediscover the importance of Korner as a bandleader, stylist, and nurturer of talent. Highly recommended.... (Wounded Bird Records, released July 13, 2010)
