18/01/2026
Cyril Davies was a key figure in bringing Chicago Blues to the UK with the pioneering harmonica player being an early influence on the British scene, and being a founding member of Blues Incorporated alongside Alexis Korner.
The influence of these two great men set the foundation for the 1960's British blues boom. While he started playing skiffle on a banjo and 12-string, he went on to take up the harmonic after hearing Little Walter.
A panel be**er by day and blues pioneer by night, when he wasn't playing he was hosting US blues legends like Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Memphis Slim at the London Blues and Barrelhouse Club.
After the dissolving of Blues Incorporated, Cyril went on to start his own electric blues project The Cyril Davies All-Stars, that would record a five track album with Pye Records and make a number of television appearances until his untimely passing in 1964 at only 31 years of age after an illness of the lungs and heart.
