Alexis Korner

British guitarist Alexis Korner was born in Paris, France, in 1928. He was a founder of the seminal British blues band Blues Incorporated, which greatly influenced the blues scene in London in the early 1960s and had such adherents as Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. His family moved regularly around Europe, and when he was 11 they settled in England. A jazz fan, he learned to play the guitar and piano. In the 1950s he teamed up with Chris Barber in a variety of jazz and skiffle bands. In 1961 he formed Blues Incorporated with Cyril Davies. Davies left the band the next year, but Korner continued it until 1967. For the next few years he worked with such future rock legends as Steve Marriott (of Humble Pie) and Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin. In 1969 he formed the band New Church, and after that he began the Collective Consciousness Society, which scored a hit with a version of Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". He later formed the band Rocket 88, among whom were Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart and Jack Bruce. Alexis Korner died in 1984.