Cyril Davies the blues harp maestro is one of the unsung heroes of British Blues his early death in 1964 at the young age of 31 deprived him the opportunnity to progress further and earn the respect of his past work and no doubt the work he would have produced.He was a total blues fundamentalist steeped in the traditions of Leadbelly he was somewhat scathing in the rock and roll approach to blues and was scathing of The Stones plagerism, a young Jagger once asked him how to bend noted and was dismissed with "get a pair of f***ing pliers".
He founded the London Skiffle Club in 1955 where he met Alexis Korner with whom he was to team up with in Blues Incorporated and was the shining light and ispiration in the legendary 1962 recording "R&B At The Marquee".
He left shortly after this release to form his own "All Stars" with Long John Baldry, sadly there was only time for two singles and an EP before his death from leukaemia, but his amplified harmonica playing inspired the next generation of brit-bluesers most notably the also departed Duster Bennett
A canadian fan maintains a very informative web page in his memory which you can link to below:-
Enjoy a couple of tracks from "R&B From The Marquee" below:-
2 comments:
Cyril, along with Alexis Korner was indeed an influential figure in British Blues and R&B. Korner was an accomplished musician with a distinctive growl of a voice. I've always got the impression with Cyril Davies though that his enthusiasm and knowledge of the genre, and the energy he put in to his performance, was never quite matched by his musical output.
Possibly true, he was constantly handicapped by his fight with his illness, he turned to drink to ease the pain over a number of years which limited his output.
You only need to listen to the brilliant "R&B From The Marquee" to hear what was possible, his death shortly afterward at ony 32 probably resulted in his best work never happenning.
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