British blues

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexis Korner 1968
John Mayall 2007
Eric Clapton 1977
Mick Taylor

Under British Blues means the British variety of American blues in the late 1950s began to develop and reached its peak in mid-1960s. The British blues produced numerous stars, such as B. The Rolling Stones , Eric Clapton , Fleetwood Mac , the Climax Blues Band or Led Zeppelin .

Short Story

The first blues records came to Great Britain through American GIs during World War II . As early as the 1950s, blues, especially Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith and Boogie Woogie , were known and appreciated by jazz fans. Even then, the record companies recognized the growing market and released blues and jazz records, mostly on Decca Records, a sub-label of EMI. Blues also became known through the skifflemusik at the end of the 1950s. Lonnie Donegan covered blues numbers from Leadbelly . When the skiffle boom declined, many musicians of this style turned to pure blues. These musicians included Cyril Davies and Alexis Korner , who played with Chris Barber. Davis owned the London Skiffle Club at the Roundhouse Public House. The first American blues musicians performed here, such as B. Big Bill Broonzy . After this musical experience, the two decided to close the club and reopen it a month later as "The London Blues and Barrelhouse Club". So far, the British blues has been influenced by acoustic country blues, but that changed after the appearance of Muddy Waters in 1958. Davis and Korner lit their instruments and formed Blues Incorporated .

The later cream of the English music scene began at Blues Incorporated, it was customary at Blues Inc. that anyone who wanted could join the gigs. At Blues Inc. played Mick Jagger , Charlie Watts and Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones , the later members of Cream Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker as well as Graham Bond and Long John Baldry . Looking at this list of musicians, Korner's "title" father of British blues is understandable. The band later moved to the Marquee Club and recorded the first British blues album R&B from the Marquee with numbers by Muddy Waters, Jimmy Witherspoon and Leroy Carr in June 1962 , but not in the Marquee but in the Decca studios in West London Hampstead was recorded. At the beginning of 1963, Cyril Davis left Blues Inc. and founded his own band, which tended more towards jazz (Cyril Davis All Stars). The tradition of the electric blues then led bands like The Rolling Stones , The Yardbirds , The Animals , Fleetwood Mac , Cream and others. a. away. This also achieved the breakthrough in the mainstream market.

The acoustic blues led a shadowy existence in the wake of the great blues boom in the 1960s and could never be as commercially successful as the electric groups. The most important figure in British blues in the 1960s was John Mayall , whose band The Bluesbreakers brought together the most important English musicians ( Eric Clapton , Mick Taylor , Aynsley Dunbar , Jack Bruce , Mick Fleetwood , John McVie and Peter Green ). Although blues music disappeared behind blues rock and heavy metal, two styles that developed from British blues, in the late 1960s, it stayed alive as many American blues musicians made regular visits to the UK. In the mid-1980s, the blues became more prominent again, the second blues boom was triggered by The Blues Band , a group that consisted of many of Manfred Mann's former musicians ( Paul Jones , Tom McGuinness, Hughie Flint and Gary Fletcher). The acoustic blues were upheld by siblings Dave Kelly and Jo Ann Kelly . Dave was later also part of the blues band. The blues boom also gave rise to blues festivals across the country.

Quotes

  • It was the kids who encouraged and inspired them, who fanned out and won the revolution.
  • The blues is the healthiest thing in British pop music.
  • They appreciate the blues far more than American kids. John Lee Hooker

See also

List of British blues musicians

Individuals

Bands

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Harry Shapiro: Alexis Korner - The Biography (London, 1996). P. 108.
  2. ↑ British blues. Retrieved February 10, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Peter Frame on Blues Inc. Cyril Davies: British Blues Harp Pioneer - Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated
  4. ↑ Melody Maker quoted from: Big money . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1970 ( online ).
  5. ^ Roberta Freund Schwartz: How Britain Got the Blues. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007, ISBN 978-0-7546-5580-0 , p. 212 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

literature

  • Bob Brunning: Blues In Britain - The History 1950s To The Present (London: Blandford, 1995) ISBN 0-7137-2457-9