Home » Jazz Musicians » Georgie Fame

Georgie Fame

Georgie Fame - Organ, piano, vocal

Born Clive Powell on June 26, 1943 in the English industrial town of Leigh, Lancashire, Georgie Fame’s interest in music initially grew out of his family entertaining in the home and musical evenings in the church hall across the street, where his father also played in an amateur dance band. Although young Clive began piano lessons at age seven, he didn’t stick too long with the formal training. But when rock and roll started to be broadcast on the radio during the mid-fifties, a then-teenage Clive began to take the piano more seriously, playing piano in various pubs and with a local group, “The Dominoes.”

In July 1959, he joined up with Rory Blackwell, the resident rock and roll bandleader and his band Rory and the Blackjacks In October of that year, the Marty Wilde Show was performing at the Lewisham Gaumont and Rory Blackwell arranged for Clive to audition “live” for impresario Larry Parnes, who after hiring him, he renamed “Georgie Fame,” and the name has stuck to this day. By the age of 16, Billy Fury selected four musicians, including Fame, for his personal backing group and the “Blue Flames” were born. At the end of 1961, after a disagreement, the band and Fury parted company.

Another gloomy out-of-work period finally ended in March 1962, when Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames took up what was to be a three-year residency as the house band at the Flamingo Club in London’s Soho district. In 1963 their first album, “Rhythm and Blues at the Flamingo” was recorded live at the club. Georgie also pursued his interest in jazz, recording the milestone album, “Sound Venture,” with the Harry South Big Band. This led directly to successful tours of the UK and Europe in 1967 and 1968, which found Georgie singing with the Count Basie Orchestra.

From 1970 to 1973, Georgie Fame worked almost exclusively in a partnership with fellow musician Alan Price (former keyboard player for The Animals). Their partnership came to a close several years later, but the television exposure had made Georgie Fame a household name in Britain.

In 1974, Georgie reformed the Blue Flames and they continue working with him (in one form or another) to this day. At that time, Georgie also began to regularly step away from the keyboards to sing with Europe’s finest orchestras and big bands, a musical tradition he still currently pursues

Read more

Tags

7
Extended Analysis

A Supreme Love

Read "A Supreme Love" reviewed by Duncan Heining


Alan Skidmore is one of the finest saxophonists to come out of the United Kingdom, Europe or indeed anywhere. In fact, it was hearing Skidmore's tenor solo on “Have You Heard?" from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966) that encouraged a young Michael Brecker to take up the instrument. Skidmore had also served his apprenticeship with blues singer Alexis Kornerin the sixties and by the end of the decade was equally well-versed in the blues and in the ...

241
Album Review

Georgie Fame: Georgie Fame: Poet In New York

Read "Georgie Fame: Poet In New York" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Clive Powell aka Georgie Fame takes us back to the future with a CD that features three tunes of the legendary Pianist/Composer Tadd Dameron: “On A Misty Night", “That's The Way It Goes" and “Accentuate The Bass." Fame has set lyrics to these Dameron classics well as a salute to King Pleasure with a fine rendition of “Symphony Sid." Georgie Fame's voice is surely attuned to the jazz idiom despite his occasional forays into other forms of music, although he ...

Read more articles

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

A Supreme Love

Confront Recordings
2023

buy

Mod Classics: 1964 -...

Go Jazz Records
2010

buy

Seventh Son

Go Jazz Records
2006

buy

Poet In New York

Go Jazz Records
2000

buy

The In-Crowd

Go Jazz Records
1998

buy

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.