Alvin Lee dead, like jazz, at 68.

Alvin Lee of the British blues-rock band Ten Years After has died at the age of 68. While his place in baby-boomer posterity was assured by his long solo on the tune “I’m Going Home” in the movie “Woodstock”. Lee was much more than that to musicians growing up in this era. Like most young Brit guitarists of that period, Lee was steeped in the styles of American blues players, but he took it one step further than most by becoming a fairly proficient jazz player as well. Ten Years After played the big arenas for a few years on either side of 1970, and enjoyed a couple of radio hits after Woodstock, but mostly they existed as a niche blues-jazz outfit of a type unique to the time. As late as 1968, they were still playing at London jazz clubs, rather than rock venues, and existed in that happy English melting pot of styles that included John Mayall and other genre-bending acts.

Growing up amongst all of this, we can assure you that Lee was indeed an official rock guitar god, but he further served to open young ears to the possibilities of blues and jazz as musical options for young hippies like us. The video here—actually an audio recording with an image of the album from which this cut comes—is the band’s version of Woody Herman’s “Woodchopper’s Ball”. This is from their Undead album, recorded live at Klook’s Kleek in London, and released in 1968. Quite a few bands of this era were exposing us to the wonders of American blues, but very few were also giving us a taste of jazz. Here, Lee and the boys even give us a rudimentary lesson in swing rhythm, which had disappeared from blues and rock sometime in the late 1950’s. We’re told that even Woody Herman enjoyed this version of what was his band’s theme song in the mid-1940’s.

Lee represents a time and a place that’s long gone, and should serve as Exhibit A as we begin talking about vanished individuality among today’s musicians. Improvising, featured instrumentalists like Lee have all but disappeared from rock & roll. He also possessed an unmistakable style, immediately recognizable to musicians who came of age back then. Hell, all the prominent players had immediately recognizable styles then, but that sort of thing is deemed either self-indulgent by modern critics, or unsellable by modern marketers. Rest in peace symbols, man.