MAGE MUSIC: Charlie Watts

Friday, June 5, 2015

On This Day 05 June

The musicians who play at tribute concerts generally have a connection with the person being honored. Here's the Jimmy Page - Alexis Korner connection.

1984 05 June On This Day Alexis Korner Tribute Concert, Nottingham,England at Nottingham Palais Ballroom.
Note incorrect year in text of this On This Day post - 1984, not 1988

Alexis Korner Tribute Concert setlist

London was a hotbed of music in the 1960s. Today's biggest names in music experienced an artistic cross-pollination the likes of which begs comparison to that of Italy in the 1400s. British (and American) musicians intermingled, sampled, absorbed and reconfigured each others' music, forming the backbone of what we have listened to and loved ever since.

Alexis Korner (1928 – 1984) was one of these core artists of the times. He was a blues musician and a radio broadcaster, and was one of the founders of Blues Incorporated, a loose-knit group of electric blues and R&B musicians. The members of Blues Incorporated changed over time, but you'll recognize Charlie Watts, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, for instance.

Blues Incorporated had drop-in musicians who occasionally performed , including Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Rod Stewart, John Mayall and yes, our very own Jimmy Page, not to mention Robert Plant. In fact, Robert Plant and Alexis Korner were in the process of recording a full album with Plant on vocals when Jimmy Page asked him to join in Page's own new musical project, the one that would become Led Zeppelin.

In 1981, Korner joined another supergroup, Rocket 88, a project led by Ian Stewart (the Stu of Led Zeppelin's Boogie With Stu) that featured a rhythm section including Jack Bruce and Charlie Watts. The name of the band came from Rocket 88, a song first recorded in Memphis in 1951. Rocket 88 was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, which was actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm (the band of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue).

A 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88

The Alexis Light Orchestra was put together by Ian Stewart for the two tribute concerts for Alexis Korner. The ALO included Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Jack Bruce, Jimmy Page, Paul Jones, Ruby Turner. The two concerts raised funds to benefit cancer research, one on this date in June in 1984 and the second in July 1984 at the Pistoia Blues Festival in Italy.

1968 The Yardbirds - Montgomery, AL at International Speedway Fairgrounds
1970 Led Zeppelin records Poor Tom at Olympic Studios, Barnes, England
1984 05 June On This Day Jimmy Page - Alexis Korner Tribute Concert, Nottingham,England at Nottingham Palais Ballroom