Alexis Korner appreciation corner

[Alan Balfour]

Thought I'd awaken this dormant topic in light of something I've been asked to OCR for somebody. It's from the editorial in Jazz Journal, March 1958.

BIG BILL BROONZY
SOME PERSONAL MEMORIES
by ALEXIS KORNER

We have organised a Benefit Concert for Big Bill Broonzy.

On March 9th, at the Coliseum, many of Britain's leading musicians are donating their time and service for the purpose of raising monev to send to Bill Broonzy. All these people have personal thoughts, personal memories of Bill and it is this mixture of respect and affection which has produced such whole hearted response.

I first met Bill Broonzy at the start of his 1955 tour. It was with some trepidation that I rang him at the Shaftesbury Hotel within one or two days of his arrival. I was rather nervous of telephoning him being unused to ringing up great blues singers, and could only mutter a strangled greeting. This was done in the usual "You Don't Know Me But..." style, but his smooth, easy paced voice reassured me that I might yet survive the next four or five minutes. It was then arranged that Bill Broonzy and Yannick Brnynoghe, together with Max and Betty Jones, should come around on the following evening.

Having sweated steadily for some twenty four hours. and carefully hidden my guitar, I felt myself prepared to meet Big Bill Broonzy. By eight o'clock in the evening my wife, who had been viewing my mental and physical preparations with amused exasperation, began to show some concern at my rapidly declining state of health. Whilst I had not yet begun to twitch, this development seemed imminent and it was the sound of the doorbell which finally startled me back to the realisation that it was necessary for me to maintain some pretence of normal sanity. I trickled down to the hall and opened the front door. Outside stood Yannick Bruynoghe and Big Bill. I am told that I introduced myself quite coherently although I wonder if my first words, whatever they may have been, had anything to do with the look of slight suspicion which remained with Bill for the next hour or so. Soon however everyone relaxed and, by the end of the evening we were all laughing heartily at Bill's jokes.

A few days later Bill Broonzy came to stay with us.

He loved to be with the children and the dog and it became quite normal to see Bill playing his Martin, with our 3 1/2 year old daughter sitting on his lap and the dog nibbling at his left hand as it moved up and down the fingerboard. Everyone was happy.

As he is a big man, Bill, not unnaturally, has a big appetite and he often sat down to a breakfast of two enormous chops, three fried eggs and quantities of bread. In fact, Bill's breakfast became one of the local sights as the children in our street queued outside the area railings to watch him 'dining' in the basement. I might mention here that, contrary to general belief, Bill did not drink a bottle of whisky either before or during his breakfast; a great disappointment to our daughter whose self imposed duty it was to pour out — a mania I might add which became a considerable burden to us after Bill's departure and which was heightened by Bill's return to our home in 1957, when our one year old son's determinated attempts to polish off the dregs of all whisky glasses increased the general mayhem!

We talked about baseball, about the blues, about cars and about children. We talked about fishing and we talked about politics.

Sappho, our daughter, had a fairly sound knowledge of standard blues verses, but Bill did not really approve of this. The blues were not for children and Bill did not think that they should be told about them but, accepting the situation. he liked to sing Sappho a song each night and. often it was a blues. But he would not just walk into the room sit down and sing. Bill Broonzy is a perfectionist and so, for five minutes before going in to Sappho, he would sit in his room and rehearse just to make sure that he sang as well as possible. Every performance had to be his best.

Everyone tried very hard to understand everyone else and to some extent, we were all. Probably successful for we became good friends.

Bill is proud and jealous of his music; he is good natured and temperamental. He can be difficult, as well as kind, sometimes quick to take offence but likes to act as a mediator in quarrels. In fact Bill Broonzy is a very human person. But Bill Broonzy is from another world than ours and it is with his own people that he will always be happiest — knowing them, he is secure in the knowledge that they know him.
--------------------------
Further to our announcement in last month's issue of the Big Bill Broonzy benefit concert to be held at the London Coliseum on Sunday March 9th, the following strong bill has now been finalised: Johnny Dankworth and His Orchestra the Dill Jones Trio, Humphrey Lyttelton and His Band, and Mick Mulligan and His Band. The following guest artists will also appear, Cleo Laine, Betty Smith Sandy Brown, Al Fairweather, George Melly, Don Rendell, and Bruce Turner. The concert will be compared by Alan Lomax. Rory McEwen, Wilfred Thomas and it is hoped, Milton Mezz Mezzrow. Seats can be obtained direct from the Coliseum Box Office, prices 5/-; 7/6, 10/-, 12t6 and £1/0/0.

A second benefit concert organised by the National Jazz Federation, is scheduled to take place at midnight on March 14th at the Dominion Theatre Tottenham Court Road. Donating their services to this concert is the Chris Barber Band. the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group, and Ken Colyer's Jazzmen.

It is sincerely hoped that you will give these concerts the support they deserve.
THE EDITOR

[NormanD]

Thanks, as ever, Alan. I know you edit your OCRs as much as possible, but is the following correct?

He loved to be with the children and the dog and it became quite normal to see Bill playing his Martin, with our 32 year old daughter sitting on his lap

[Alan Balfour]

Thanks, as ever, Alan. I know you edit your OCRs as much as possible, but is the following correct?

He loved to be with the children and the dog and it became quite normal to see Bill playing his Martin, with our 32 year old daughter sitting on his lap

Ouch, it's the way the software has read three and a half. It could have been worse and come out as 3112! I'll amend.

[judith]

Thank you, Alan, for yet another great read. Also, it was quite fun for me to go back and read the thread from the beginning and be reminded of the wealth of information I have soaked up from the forum, how much I have learned from this site. I remember when I first joined the forum and began learning about people like Alexis Korner - of whom I had been sadly ignorant - and from such knowledgeable people like yourself. Eureka!

note: 'Eureka' is a local colloquialism ('I have found it!' attributed to Archimedes) for discovering gold. We do have gold in the nearby rivers).

[Alan Balfour]

Thank you, Alan, for yet another great read. Also, it was quite fun for me to go back and read the thread from the beginning and be reminded of the wealth of information I have soaked up from the forum, how much I have learned from this site. I remember when I first joined the forum and began learning about people like Alexis Korner - of whom I had been sadly ignorant - and from such knowledgeable people like yourself. Eureka!

note: 'Eureka' is a local colloquialism ('I have found it!' attributed to Archimedes) for discovering gold. We do have gold in the nearby rivers).

I always thought that Archimedes said that when he climbed into a tin bath of water and noticed that the level of water suddenly got higher. He also had a water "screw" named after him but less said about that the better. [grin]

But that is not the reason for my intervention. Judith, have you checked out this enterprise? http://alexis-korner.net/

[judith]

Wow! Thanks for the Alexis Korner site, Alan.

As for the Archimedes quote, you are correct. Californians are notorious for traveling off into their own versions of things, often in delight. My favorite Archimedes quote is, "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth." in his delight over his levers.

[Adam Blake]

Perfect! Oh wonderful YouTube! Exactly the right bit of one of my favourite favourite movies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8h5Owjxomg

Alexis Korner. Oh... I remember a radio show from when I was maybe 11 years old that turned me on to Charlie Patton (God, that music sounded like it came another planet - and it still does) and how he mischievously wrong footed the reliably stern Paul Oliver (who was his guest) by ping-ponging him a bootleg version of Jimi Hendrix playing "Red House". I knew it was a bootleg because Korner virtually announced it as such live on the air. One did not play bootlegs on the BBC, then or now or ever. Oliver made a few sour remarks about how people like Hendrix had helped to ruin the blues and immediately I knew that there was a battle being fought over this music and I knew where my sympathies lay. With the benefit of age I can look back and see that Oliver was probably jealous of Alexis's effortless cool. He was so loved. I can recommend Harry Shapiros' 1996 biography.

[Alan Balfour]

Alexis Korner. Oh... I remember a radio show from when I was maybe 11 years old that turned me on to Charlie Patton (God, that music sounded like it came another planet - and it still does)

By 1977 his Radio One R&B Show had metamorphosed into Alexis Korner's Blues & Soul Show the first of which received major stick from the recently launched monthly magazine, Black Music. Their stance incensed me because his mix of blues-African-soul music was very much in line with what Oliver had been attempting to convey in his 1970 paperback Savannah Syncopators: African Retentions In The Blues. I fired off a lengthy letter to the Beeb stating as much. Did I hear anything? Did I hell. However it must have been forwarded to AK for a month or so later he wrote thanking me for my support.