Review: Blues Incorporated - At The Cavern (1964)
Tracks: 1) Overdrive; 2) Whoa Babe; 3) Every Day I Have The Blues; 4) Hoochie Coochie Man; 5) Herbie’s Tune; 6) Little Bitty Gal Blues; 7) Well All Right, OK You Win; 8) Kansas City.
REVIEW
With Beatlemania already in full swing and the British rhythm’n’blues scene already being populated by newcoming scruffy young ruffians, this record already has less historical significance than R&B At The Marquee — yet it is also a genuinely superior recording. First, unlike the «Marquee» sessions, this one was actually recorded live (February 23, 1964, at The Cavern in Liverpool, a place already made famous throughout the country by the magic of the Beatles’ touch): consequently, it catches Korner’s backing band in a more adventurous state of mind, as their purpose is no longer limited to just introducing their influences, but also includes — at least, to some degree — the desire to transform those influences.
Second, with several years of experience behind their backs, Blues Incorporated were almost beginning to develop some sort of personal identity — very important in an era of swiftly increasing competition, even though it was still never enough to make Korner into a superstar (not that he ever entertained any such ambitions). Clearly, they were listening not only to «mass appeal» records from the Chicago blues scene, but to various strains of jazz as well, trying to mix both types of influences in their live act (before this mix reached a culmination of sorts in the studio, with Red Hot From Alex, though Korner would never demonstrate the same kind of energy in the studio).
This particular line-up, other than Korner himself, included Dave Castle (replacing Dick Heckstall-Smith) on saxophone; Malcom Saul on organ; Vernon Bown on bass; Mike Scott on drums; and Herbie Goins on vocals, although Alexis himself takes the lead on the first few tracks (allegedly, he abhorred his own singing voice and only sang out of necessity — which is understandable, since he has a raspy croak which, at best, comes across as «funny»; that said, mood-wise Korner’s vocals agree well enough with the band’s arrangements, and I would still take them over, say, Jimmy Reed at least, to name at least one example of an even less impressive singer from across the Atlantic).
Of all these people, Dave Castle is the loudest, and his sax frequently tends to outshout the vocalist (ʽEveryday I Have The Bluesʼ is a particularly illustrative example: no sooner does Alexis introduce Herbie Goins to the Cavern audiences as «someone who can sing» than the frenetic blasts from Dave’s instrument threaten to prevent us, the listeners — let alone the actual audience at the club — from assessing that statement). Some find this a problem, but not me: the noisy ambience generated by Dave’s ruckus is intermittently irritating... and curious — certainly B. B. King and his band would never have dreamed of performing the song that way.
The lengthy instrumental ʽHerbie’s Tuneʼ, ironically named after the band’s only member who does not perform on it, is quite solid here and a major improvement on the shorter and more tepid studio recording. Here, it is still a carefully constructed workout in 12/4, but with both Castle and Saul taking their time to improvise and Mike Scott turning in the obligatory drum solo, probably making this the earliest «jazz-style rock instrumental» in the history of British rhythm & blues, and a pretty good one. Everything gels, even if the main theme, with its rather monotonous rise-and-fall pattern, is hardly on par with Charles Mingus, whose influence is very sharply felt here.
Alexis throws in a few of his own compositions, introducing ʽWhoa Babeʼ as a «John Lee Hooker type blues» — although, let’s face it, John Lee Hooker would probably not care about such show-off-ey saxophone exuberance on his records, and the song’s rhythm, mood, and stinging slide guitar leads are more suggestive of Muddy Waters anyway. (Maybe «John Lee Hooker» just has a better onstage ring to it than «Muddy Waters», I wouldn’t know.) The other one is given the ambitious title of ʽOverdriveʼ — although, frankly, the only performer to remain in overdrive during the song, and throughout the entire album as well, is Dave Castle, to the extent that they should have honestly credited the LP to «Dave Castle’s Blues Incorporated». Castle even manages to dominate on ʽHoochie Coochie Manʼ, despite Alexis’ trying at one point to revert attention to himself by playing a stinging slide guitar solo (for about a couple of bars, that is, before the organ and sax drown it out once and for all).
Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it helps, but in the end, it is the brass component which gives At The Cavern its distinct flavor, if we so desperately need to extract it. The UK already had its fair share of competent sax blowers by 1964, yet, for the most part, they were either bit players of relatively little significance (e. g. Mike Vickers of Manfred Mann) or played within a strict pop configuration (Mike Smith of the Dave Clark 5). The major exception was Dick Heckstall-Smith, a jazz player open to different formats; but if you ask me, Dave Castle does just fine a job in his steps (on Red Hot From Alex, they would be working in tandem). As for Herbie Goins, Korner certainly does not lie with the "somebody who can sing" introduction, but I am afraid that is pretty much all that could be said about Herbie Goins — The Man Who Could Sing (When Nobody Else Could).
One minor complaint which simply has to be voiced, though, concerns Korner’s style of stage banter: he does these «dark», «theatrical» announcements from stage, drawing out and rolling around his syllables as if channeling some traditional vaudeville show, and it comes across as a strained and comical mannerism rather than a serious premonition. "At which juncture we’d like to carry on with a John Lee Hooker type blu-u-u-u-ues..." "...this one’s an old Joe Turner number called... Littl-l-l-le Bitt-e-e-e-e Ga-a-a-al Blu-u-ues..." and so on. Maybe the idea is that this style of presentation is somehow «authentic», but I would rather take the natural, un-affected, and even slightly scared stage announcements from Five Live Yardbirds than this kind of pseudo-professionalism. It is, after all, not an absolute requirement that the Godfather of British R&B should be addressing people from stage with a Godfather accent.
For the sake of trivia, there exists an expanded reissue of the album (on Castle Records, from 2006) which includes an additional six tracks recorded live for the BBC that same year — including covers of ʽTurn On Your Lovelightʼ and ʽPlease, Please, Pleaseʼ, demonstrating that Korner was quite heavily getting into soul-based R&B at that time, adding to and transcending his passion for Chicago blues and Mingusian jazz. Although, to be fair, it is probably not a big sin if you go to your grave without that knowledge.
Only Solitaire: Blues Incorporated reviews