John Mayall, tireless and influential British blues legend is dead at the age of 90.
Mayall is believed to have helped to develop the English style of urban blues and rhythm that was a major factor in the revival of blues music in the latter half of the 1960s.
Jul 24, 2024 12:06 AM
English blues musician John Mayall performs with his group, The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis Hall during the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, on July 7, 2008. Sandro Campardo/AP/Keystone hide caption
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Sandro Campardo/AP/Keystone
LONDON — John Mayall, the British blues musician who’s influential band called the Bluesbreakers was a place of training to Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood and many other stars was dead. He was 90.
Mayall’s Instagram page posted on Tuesday announced his passing informing followers that the musician passed away Monday morning at the home he shared with his wife in California. “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 read.
He was believed to have helped in the development of the English version of urban, Chicago-style blues and rhythms which played a significant part in the revival of blues in the 1960s. In various periods, the Bluesbreakers comprised Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce then of Cream; Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac; Mick Taylor who toured for five years in The Rolling Stones; Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor of Canned Heat as well as Jon Mark and John Almond who later formed Mark and Almond Band.
Mayall denied when he spoke to the media that he wasn’t a talent scout however, he played out of the passion of music that he first discovered on his father’s 78-rpm records.
“I’m a band leader and I know what I want to play in my band — who can be good friends of mine,” Mayall declared during an interview for The Southern Vermont Review. “It’s definitely a family. It’s a small kind of thing really.”
A small, but timeless thing. While Mayall did not attain the acclaim of his famous members, he was playing in the late 80s, playing his own version from the Chicago blues. The fact that he wasn’t recognized was a bit of a sting. somewhat and he was not shy about expressing his feelings.
English blues musician John Mayall performs with his band, The Bluesbreakers, on the stage of the Miles Davis hall at the 42nd Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, on July 7 the 7th of July in 2008. Sandro Campardo/AP/Keystone hide caption
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Sandro Campardo/AP/Keystone
“I’ve never had a hit record, I never won a Grammy Award, and Rolling Stone has never done a piece about me,” the singer said during an interview for The Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. “I’m still an underground performer.”
Famous as a blues harmonica player, keyboard and guitar playing, Mayall had a Grammy nomination to be awarded for “Wake Up Call” which included guest performers Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Mick Taylor and Albert Collins. He was nominated again at the age of 2022, for his record “The Sun Is Shining Down.” Mayall also received recognition from the government of Britain by being awarded his OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
He was selected to be part of his 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class. His record from 1966 “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton,” is regarded as to be among the top British blues recordings.
Mayall at one point was asked whether he would keep playing to satisfy an obligation, or to prove he could perform.
“Well the demand is there, which is a good thing. However, it’s not for either of those things, it’s simply for the joy of music,” he told an interview for Hawaii Public Radio. “I just get together with these guys and we have a workout.”
Mayall was born November. 29th, 1933 in Macclesfield close to Manchester located in central England.
Invoking the bluesman who had a lot of luck, 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.”
The father of his son also played banjo and guitar and his recordings of boogie-woogie music fascinated his son who was just a teenager.
Mayall claimed that he was taught to play the piano a hand at a timeone year playing left hand and a time on the left handhand “so I wouldn’t get all tangled up.”
Piano was the primary instrument, but Mayall also played harmonica and guitar and sang in a an unmistakably strained voice. Only aided by the drummer Keef Hartley Mayall was the only musician in the 1967 release, “Blues Alone.”
Mayall was often referred to as”the “father of British blues,” however when he relocated into London in 1962, his intention was to savor the growing blues scene, led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Eric Burdon were among others attracted to the sound.
The Bluesbreakers had a diverse group of musicians who slipped into and out of different groups. Mayall’s most famous catch was Clapton who had resigned from his band the Yardbirds and joined the Bluesbreakers in 1965, mainly because Clapton was dissatisfied with the Yardbirds commercial direction.
Mayall and Clapton were both passionate about Chicago blues. The guitarist later said the fact that Mayall owned “the most incredible collection of records I had ever seen.”
Mayall was tolerant of Clapton’s eccentricity The singer disappeared for within a couple of months of joining the group, but returned later in the year, with Peter Green being the only newly-arrived Peter Green, then left for good in the year 1966, joining Bruce to create Cream that soared into commercial success and left Mayall way behind.
British Blues pioneer John Mayall performs with the band Bluesbreakers in the Deutsche Museum in Munich, West Germany, on Jan. 21 January, 1970. Claus Hampel/AP hide caption
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Claus Hampel/AP
Clapton was interviewed by the BBC documentary about Mayall during 2003 admitted to the BBC documentary that “to a certain extent I have used his hospitality, used his band and his reputation to launch my own career,”
“I think he’s an excellent musician. I admire and appreciate his determination,” Clapton added.
Mayall advised Clapton to sing, and advised Green to improve his songwriting skills.
Mick Taylor, who succeeded Green as the Bluesbreaker in the latter half of the 1960s, admired the wide range of latitude that Mayall gave his soloists.
“You’d have complete freedom to do whatever you wanted,” Taylor stated during a conversation in 1979 the writer Jas Obrecht. “You could make as many mistakes as you wanted, too.”
The album of Mayall in 1968 “Blues from Laurel Canyon” was a sign of a shift into his home in the United States and a change in direction. The band disbanded in 1968. Bluesbreakers and played drummers as well as two guitars.
In the following year, the artist came out with “The Turning Point,” possibly his most popular release featuring a typical four-man acoustic group that included Mark Almond and Mark Almond. “Room to Move,” one of the songs from that album was a regular fan favorite throughout Mayall’s subsequent career.
The 1970s saw Mayall with a low level of personal success yet still on tour and playing over 100 performances per year.
“Throughout the ’70s, I performed most of my shows drunk,” Mayall declared when he spoke to Dan Ouellette for Down Beat magazine in 1990. One incident that occurred was a dare to leap off an upper balcony into a swimming water pool that sailed by breaking his heels, left him limping.
“That was one incident that got me to stop drinking,” Mayall declared.
The year 1982 was when he formed the Bluesbreakers and recruited Taylor and McVie however, after two years, the band’s personnel changed. Then, in 2008 Mayall declared that he had decided to retire the Bluesbreaker name. Then, in 2013 he took over John Mayall Band.
Mayall as well as his wife of a second time, Maggie, divorced in the year 2011 after thirty years together. They had two sons.