John Mayall, the British blues musician whose influential band the Bluesbreakers were the training ground for Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood and many other superstars, has died. It was 90.
A statement on Mayall's Instagram page announced his death on Tuesday (July 23), saying the musician died on Monday at his home in California. “The health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world's greatest road warriors,” the post said.
He is credited with helping to develop the English take on urban rhythm and the Chicago blues style that played a major role in the blues revival of the late 1960s. At various times, the Bluesbreakers included Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, later by the Creams. Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. Mick Taylor, who played five years with the Rolling Stones. Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor of Canned Heat. and Jon Mark and John Almond, who went on to form the Mark-Almond Band.
Mayall protested in interviews that he was not a talent scout, but played for the love of the music he had first heard on his father's 78 rpm records.
“I'm a bandleader and I know what I want to play in my band — who can be my good friends,” Mayall said in an interview with the Southern Vermont Review. “They are definitely a family. It's a small thing really.”
A small but sturdy thing. Although Mayall never came close to the fame of some of his illustrious alumni, he was still performing in the late 80s, churning out his own version of Chicago blues. The lack of recognition was jarring a bit, and he wasn't ashamed to say so.
“I've never had a hit record, I've never won a Grammy, and Rolling Stone has never done a piece on me,” he said in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. “I'm still an underground performer.”
Known for blues harmonica and keyboard playing, Mayall had a Grammy nomination for “Wake Up Call” which featured guest artists Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Mick Taylor and Albert Collins. He received a second nomination in 2022 for his album The sun is shining. He also won official recognition in Britain with the award of OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
Inducted into the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame category and the 1966 album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton considered one of the best British blues albums.
Mayall was once asked if he continued to play to fulfill a requirement or simply to show that he could still do it.
“Well, the demand is there, luckily. But it's really for neither of those two things, it's just for the love of the music,” he said in an interview with Hawaii Public Radio. “I'm just getting together with these guys and we're having a workout.”
Mayall was born on 29 November 1933 in Macclesfield, near Manchester in central England.
Sounding a note of the ill-fated bluesman, Mayall once said: “The only reason I was born in Macclesfield was because my father was a drinker and that's where his favorite pub was.”
His father also played guitar and banjo, and his boogie-woogie piano records fascinated his teenage son.
Mayall said he learned to play the piano one hand at a time — one year in the left hand, one year in the right, “so I wouldn't get all mixed up.”
The piano was his main instrument, although he performed guitar and harmonica, as well as singing in a distinctive high-pitched voice. Aided only by drummer Keef Hartley, Mayall played all other instruments on the 1967 album Blues Alone.
Mayall was often called the “father of British blues”, but when he moved to London in 1962, his aim was to enjoy the burgeoning blues scene led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Eric Bardon, among others, contributed to the sound.
The Bluesbreakers were based on a fluid community of musicians who drifted in and out of various bands. Mayall's biggest catch was Clapton, who had left the Yardbirds and joined the Bluesbreakers in 1965 because he was unhappy with the Yardbirds' commercial direction.
Mayall and Clapton shared a passion for Chicago blues, and the guitarist later recalled that Mayall had “the most incredible record collection I'd ever seen”.
Mayall put up with Clapton's disarray: He disappeared a few months after joining the band, then reappeared later that year, ousting the newly arrived Peter Green, then left for good in 1966 with Bruce to form Cream, which launched into commercial success, leaving Mayall out. back.
Clapton, interviewed for a BBC documentary about Mayall in 2003, confessed that “to a certain extent I used his hospitality, I used his band and his reputation to launch my own career”.
“I think he's a great musician. I just admire and respect his consistency,” Clapton added.
Mayall encouraged Clapton to sing and encouraged Green to develop his songwriting skills.
Mick Taylor, who succeeded Green as Bluesbreaker in the late 1960s, appreciated the great latitude Mayall allowed his soloists.
“You would have complete freedom to do whatever you want,” Taylor said in a 1979 interview with author Jas Obrecht. “You can make as many mistakes as you want, too.”
Mayall's 1968 album Blues From Laurel Canyon it marked a permanent move to the United States and a change in direction. He disbanded the Bluesbreakers and worked with two guitars and drums.
The following year it was released The Turning Point, arguably his most successful release, featuring an atypical four-man acoustic line-up including Mark and Almond. “Room to Move”, a song from this album, was a frequent crowd favorite in Mayall's later career.
The 1970s found Mayall at a personal low, but he still tours and performs more than 100 concerts a year.
“During the '70s, I played most of my shows drunk,” Mayall said in an interview with Dan Ouellette for Down Beat magazine in 1990. One consequence was an attempt to jump from a balcony into a swimming pool that he missed – knocking off one of Mayall's heels and leaving him limping.
“That was one incident that made me stop drinking,” Mayall said.
In 1982, he reformed the Bluesbreakers, recruiting Taylor and McVie, but after two years the personnel changed again. In 2008, Mayall announced that he was retiring the Bluesbreaker name for good, and in 2013 he fronted the John Mayall Band.
Mayall and his second wife, Maggie, divorced in 2011 after 30 years of marriage. They had two sons.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/john-mayall-dead-1235738454/
