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John
Mayall
John Mayall's current Bluesbreakers line-up includes Buddy Whittington on guitar, Joe Yuele on drums, Tom Canning on keyboards and Hank Van Sickle on bass. Their new studio album "Road Dogs" was released June 14 in the US. The band will be playing a whirlwind tour of Ontario and Quebec including Thunder Bay, July 8; Hamilton, July 9; Quebec City, July 11; Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre, July 12: Ottawa, July 13; Mont Tremblant, July 14; London, July 15; and Windsor, July 16.
John Mayall, playing at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on July 12, is one of the pivotal figures in British blues. Sometimes referred to as "the father of the British Blues" he was the man who nurtured guitar slingers such as Eric Clapton and Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor and Coco Montoya, just to name a few. In the mid to late 1960s his iconic band The Blues Breakers became the breeding ground for many of the top talents to emerge on the British blues and rock scene.
Mayall is also a fine multi-instrumentalist in his own right and has been paying his dues to the blues, spreading the blues gospel around the world for close to 50 years. His legendary stature in the blues world is unshakeable, but he still has surprises up his sleeve, such as his recent (June 12) receipt of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in the Queen's Birthday Honour List — an honour that fittingly caps his many contributions to the Brit-Blues scene, (though he actually earned the honour for his work with starving children).
In accepting the honour, Mayall said, "As a musician who has always championed American blues on behalf of my country, it feels great to have been recognized for my contributions to music with this prestigious O.B.E. award. It could not have come as more of a surprise and I am most proud to accept this honour."
John Mayall was born in 1933 near Manchester, England, He grew up listening to his dad's collection of jazz records and became drawn to blues greats such as Leadbelly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith and Eddie Lang. At 13, he taught himself to play and developed his own style on piano, guitar and harmonica. He went to Art College and served three years with the British army in Korea, before establishing himself in a graphic design career.
It wasn't until John was 30 that he began to perform in public with his first groups, the Powerhouse Four and the Blues Syndicate. Soon that other blues figurehead Alexis Korner was encouraging Mayall to come to London where he got enough club work to launch his seminal group John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
When Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds, he found a new home with the Bluesbreakers. The chemistry between the guitarist and the bandleader led to the groundbreaking album "John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers" with Eric Clapton that cemented both their reputations. When Clapton and Jack Bruce left Mayall to form Cream, a succession of innovative blues players drifted through the Bluesbreakers - people like Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood who became Fleetwood Mac, Andy Fraser formed Free, and Mick Taylor joined the Rolling Stones.
In 1969, Mayall released the album "The Turning Point", a live acoustic album recorded without a drummer. One song from the album, "Room to Move", became a classic and Mayall won a gold record for the album.
Mayall moved to California and formed bands with American musicians. During the lean years for the blues in the late 1970s, Mayall struggled to play and record, but by 1982 he had reformed the Bluesbreakers.
A new incarnation of the Bluesbreakers was officially launched in 1984. It included future stars in their own right, guitarists Coco Montoya and Walter Trout, as well as drummer Joe Yuele, who is still John's rhythmic mainstay to this day.
From the 1990s on, with new Texas guitarist Buddy Whittington, Mayall's Bluesbreakers produced many successful albums including 2002's "Stories" which entered the Billboard blues charts at Number One. A 70th Birthday celebration in Liverpool, with a concert in aid of UNICEF and featuring Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Chris Barber was filmed, recorded and released as a DVD and double CD in December 2003. To top off the year, BBC aired an hour-long documentary on John Mayall's life and career, entitled "The Godfather of British Blues".
John Mayall, at 72, is still going strong and shows no signs of slowing down. You just know he plans to keep the blues alive for many years to come.
- Günter Ott
Günter Ott is a magazine editor, communications consultant and photographer in Toronto (gunter.ott@sympatico.ca). He is also leader of the blues band Tight Like That.
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