John Mayall was born 29 November 1933 in Macclesfield a small English village near the industrial hub of Manchester. He grew up listening to his guitarist father’s extensive jazz record collection and felt drawn to the blues. Deeply influenced by such greats as Leadbelly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith, and Eddie Lang, from the age of 13 he taught himself to play developing his own style with the aid of a neighbor’s piano borrowed guitars and secondhand harmonicas.
Landing in London in the 1960s, Mayall met his soulmate in Eric Clapton who had quit the Yardbirds in favor of playing the blues. This historic union culminated in the first hit album for the Bluesbreakers and resulted in worldwide legendary status. A succession of great musicians defined their artistic roots under John’s leadership. As Clapton has stated, “John Mayall has actually run an incredibly great school for musicians.”
When Eric and Jack Bruce left the band to form Cream, Peter Green took over the lead and along with original bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood a new chapter emerged that would later split from the Bluesbreakers and become Fleetwood Mac in 1967.
The next major addition to the band was 18-year-old guitarist Mick Taylor; he and drummer Keef Hartley saw various changes in direction encompassing elements of jazz and blues as John added horn players before finally paring everything back and forming a drummerless band. They recorded the legendary acoustic live album “The Turning Point” from which ‘Room to Move” was to become his traditional set closer.
John later made his permanent move from England to Los Angeles (USA) and began forming bands with American musicians featuring such masters as Blue Mitchell, Red Holloway, Freddie Robinson, Larry Taylor and Sugarcane Harris among others.
In 1979, a fire destroyed his Laurel Canyon (California) home. Around that time, he started a relationship with Maggie Parker, a singer-songwriter from Chicago who joined the band and became his wife.
John reignited his career in 1982 by taking a step back and reforming the Bluesbreakers on a temporary basis with Mick Taylor and John McVie. A concert featuring guests Albert King, Etta James, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells was released on video as Blues Alive and a new Los Angeles based set of Bluesbreakers were recruited. Guitarists Coco Montoya and Walter Trout (both of whom went on to solo success) helped kick off the next chapter which grew in stature over the next ten years.
After Coco left, John discovered the remarkable Texas blues guitarist Buddy Whittington, a powerful addition to the group featured on a series of albums including “Spinning Coin”, “Blues for the Lost Days”, “Padlock on the Blues”, “UK Tour 2K”, and “Along for the Ride“.
In 2001, on “Along for the Ride” Mayall re-teamed including Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie as well as ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Jonny Lang, Steve Miller, Billy Preston, Steve Cropper Otis Rush, Gary Moore, Jeff Healey, Reese Wynans of Steve Ray Vaughan’s band and Shannon Curfman for an amazing display of blues power at its finest.
In 2002, Mayall with the Bluesbreakers recorded “Stories” which debuted the Billboard blues charts at #1.
In 2003. John Mayall turned 70 years old and ended his extensive tour at a 70th Birthday celebration in Liverpool with a concert in aid of UNICEF featuring Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, and Chris Barber. The result was an album titled “70th Birthday Concert“.
In 2004, Eagle Rock presented an amazing look into the life and legacy of the blues legend with the release of the dual documentary “John Mayall – The Godfather of British Blues/The Turning Point” DVD. When Peter Gibson and Alex Hooper decided to make a documentary about John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in 1969 the result was The Turning Point a black and white film that focused on Mayall the bandleader at a special moment in his career. Some 34 years later, Gibson returned to the subject to direct The “Godfather of British Blues”, a 60 minute documentary produced by Martin Weitz and screened by BBC TV in 2003. “The Turning Point Soundtrack” double CD is the audio companion to “The Turning Point” DVD and captures John Mayall performing live in various settings during 1969.
The year 2005 saw the release of John’s 55th album, “Road Dogs” that was produced entirely by the Bluesbreakers and for which John wrote 13 of the 15 songs. (The remaining 2 titles were composed by Buddy Joe and Hank). This album retained the line-up of John Mayall (vocals, keyboards, harmonica guitar), Joe Yuele (drums), Buddy Whittington (lead guitar), Hank Van Sickle (bass) and Tom Canning (organ piano).
Discography:
John Mayall Plays John Mayall (Decca, 1965)
Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton (Decca, 1966)
A Hard Road (Decca, 1967)
Crusade (Decca, 1967)
Blues Alone (Decca, Ace of Clubs 1967)
Diary of a Band Volume 1 (Decca, 1968)
Diary of a Band Volume 2 (Decca, 1968)
Bare Wires (Decca, 1968)
Blues from Laurel Canyon (Decca, 1968)
Looking Back (Decca, 1969)
Primal Solos (Decca, 1969)
The Turning Point (Polydor, 1969)
Empty Rooms (Polydor, 1970)
USA Union (Polydor, 1970)
Back to the Roots (Polydor, 1971)
Memories (Polydor, 1971)
Jazz Blues Fusion (Polydor, 1972)
Moving On (Polydor, 1973)
Ten Years Are Gone (Polydor, 1973)
The Latest Edition (Polydor, 1974)
New Year, New Band, New Company (ABC, 1975)
Notice to Appear (ABC, 1975)
Lots of People (ABC, 1977)
A Hard Core Package (ABC, 1977)
Last of the British Blues (ABC, 1978)
The Bottom Line (DJM, 1979)
No More Interviews (DJM, 1980)
Road Show Blues (DJM, 1982)
Return of the Bluesbreakers (Aim Australia, 1982)
Behind the Iron Curtain (GNP Crescendo, 1985)
Chicago LineEntente (Island, 1987)
The Power of the Blues (Entente, 1988)
Archives to Eighties (Polydor, 1988)
A Sense of Place (Island, 1990)
1982 Reunion Concert (One Way, 1992)
Cross Country Blues (One Way, 1992)
The Second Decade, 3 CD set (Secret Records, 1992)
Wake Up Call (Silvertone, 1993)
Spinning Coin (Silvertone, 1995)
Blues for the Lost Days (Silvertone, 1997)
Padlock on the Blues (Eagle, 1999)
Rock the Blues Tonight (Indigo, 1999)
The Masters, film soundtrack (Eagle, 1999)
Live at the Marquee 1969 (Eagle, 1999)
Time Capsule (Private Stash, 2000)
UK Tour 2000 (Private Stash, 2000)
Boogie Woogie Man (Private Stash, 2001)
Along for the Ride (Eagle, 2001)
Stories (Eagle, 2002)
No Days Off (Private Stash, 2003)
70th Birthday Concert (Eagle, 2003)
Road Dogs (Eagle, 2005)
Essentially John Live Rarities (Eagle, 2006)
In the Palace of the King (Eagle, 2007)
Tough (Eagle, 2009)
Live in London (Private Stash, 2011)
Historic Live Shows, Vol 1 (Private Stash, 2012)
Historic Live Shows, Vol 2 (Private Stash, 2012)
Historic Live Shows, Vol 3 (Private Stash, 2012)
A Special Life (Forty Below, 2014)
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers Live In 1967 Vol 1 (2014)
Find A Way To Care (Forty Below, 2015)
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers Live In 1967 Vol 2 (2016)
Talk About That (Forty Below, 2017)
Nobody Told Me (Forty Below, 2019)
The Sun Is Shining Down (Forty Below, 2022)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.