October 2024
The day the news of John Mayall’s death appeared, my sister called to ask if I knew who he was. I’ve had Mayall records in my collection as long as I can remember, and I’m sure she must have heard at least some of his music while we were growing up. Most of the obituaries I have read have highlighted the many well-known musicians who passed through his bands, but they also did a good job of covering Mayall’s own accomplishments in music.
Along with Alexis Korner, Mayall was a key figure in the British blues movement in the 1960s, which introduced many musicians who later went on to fame. In 1963, Korner encouraged Mayall to move to London from the north of England to pursue a career in music. Over the next few years, both musicians led bands that were breeding grounds for some of the most important musicians of the 1960s. Although Korner recorded many records before his premature death in 1984, he had little impact outside the UK. Mayall’s extensive output enjoyed much wider distribution, and he was able to share his passion for the blues throughout the world.
The back cover of Mayall’s 1971 album Memories includes photos of him as a young man.
John Mayall was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in November 1933. His father, who played guitar in local pubs, had a collection of jazz and blues records that Mayall listened to attentively. He taught himself to play piano, guitar, and harmonica. At 14, he attended Manchester’s Junior School of Art, and completed his studies two years later. Mayall got a job at a department store, but continued to play music and build his record collection.
At 18, Mayall was called up for national service and spent the next three years as an office clerk in the Royal Engineers. He was stationed in England and Korea, and after leaving the army, Mayall enrolled at the Manchester College of Art to continue his studies. He worked as a graphic designer and played music whenever he could. Mayall thought he was alone in his love of the blues, and was delighted to read in an English music paper that Korner and Cyril Davies were holding regular blues shows at a jazz club in Ealing, a suburb of London.
Mayall was 30 when Korner persuaded him to move to London, and plugged into a scene that was just starting to gather steam. Within a year, the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and other bands were also popularizing the blues. Mayall began playing at the Flamingo, a club in Soho, central London, in a quartet that featured Hughie Flint on drums, Roger Dean on guitar, and John McVie on bass. Mayall also backed established American blues musicians while they were touring the UK.
Mayall called his group the Bluesbreakers, and they created a big enough stir get a contract with Decca Records. In March 1965, Decca released the first of what would be many live albums in Mayall’s discography: John Mayall Plays John Mayall, with liner notes by Korner. Dean had left the band, and Mayall hired Eric Clapton to take his place in April. Clapton had become disenchanted with his previous group, the Yardbirds, which he felt was veering away from the blues and into pop.
Clapton wandered in and out of the Bluesbreakers several times over the next year. During one of the guitarist’s returns to the group, they recorded another live album at the Flamingo, but the sound quality was not good enough for release. Decca producer Mike Vernon coaxed the band into the studio, and the label released Blues Breakers—credited as John Mayall with Eric Clapton—in July 1966. Vernon’s commitment to the blues matched Mayall’s, and he would be responsible for many important releases by Mayall and others in the coming years.
Blues Breakers solidified Clapton’s reputation as a guitarist, but by the time it hit stores, he had started his own group with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. Cream would confirm Clapton’s status as a guitar hero, but the process had begun on the album with Mayall, where Clapton’s playing is more confident and assertive than his work with the Yardbirds. Blues Breakers also marks his first appearance as a lead singer with “Ramblin’ on My Mind,” a tune by one of his primary inspirations, Delta blues guitarist Robert Johnson. Clapton paid tribute to another of his heroes, Freddie King, with “Hideaway,” a version of an instrumental recorded by the guitarist.
During one of Clapton’s departures from the Bluesbreakers, guitarist Peter Green sat in for him at a few gigs. When Mayall went into the studio with Vernon in the fall of 1966, the producer was surprised that Clapton was no longer with the Bluesbreakers, and that Hughie Flint had also moved on. Aynsley Dunbar was in for Flint, and Green was taking Clapton’s spot. Vernon’s biggest worry was that Clapton would be hard to replace. Mayall assured him that Green would be fine and might in time surpass Clapton.
Decca released A Hard Road in February 1967, and Green acquitted himself well. He wrote two of the album’s songs and debuted as a singer on the album. Green admired Clapton, but his slightly softer guitar tone and innovative way with melody made it easy to distinguish between the two players. Green’s playing on his own composition, “The Supernatural,” shows a slight Clapton influence in some phrasing, but Green’s use of more sustained notes and his restrained attack made him a guitarist worth hearing on his own terms.
By summer, Green had decided to start his own band. Mayall placed an ad in Melody Maker for a guitarist, and the 18-year-old Mick Taylor ended up replacing Green. Taylor had sat in on guitar with the Bluesbreakers during one of Clapton’s absences, but left the club before Mayall had a chance to talk to him. Mayall was pleased that Taylor was among the guitarists who responded to the ad, and he was in the studio for the recording of the next Bluesbreakers album in July 1967.
Two months earlier, Mayall had recorded The Blues Alone, which featured him on vocals and all instruments but drums, which were handled on most tracks by Keef Hartley. Hartley was the drummer again for the July sessions with Taylor, with McVie on bass. Decca released Crusade in September 1967. It was the usual Mayall album mix: new songs from the leader, alongside blues chestnuts. Taylor was another outstanding guitarist for Mayall, steeped in the blues like Clapton and Green but with a powerful individual style.
By the time Decca released The Blues Alone, McVie had left the Bluesbreakers to join Green’s new group. The drummer for that group, Mick Fleetwood, had also spent time with Mayall. Fleetwood Mac would go through many personnel changes and enjoy massive success, although much later and without Green. The band recorded several terrific albums with Green, all of them solidly grounded in the blues.
Taylor would be around for two more studio albums: Bare Wires and Blues from Laurel Canyon, both released in 1968. He also appeared on two live albums, The Diary of a Band: Volume One and The Diary of a Band: Volume Two. By June 1969, he was a member of the Rolling Stones, taking Brian Jones’s place. Mayall wasn’t upset that Taylor moved on. He had, in fact, recommended him to the Stones. Mayall was generous to his musicians, encouraging them to find their own voice and set their own goals. Hartley’s tenure with him was also brief, because Mayall told him to start his own band.
That generosity perhaps grew out of Mayall’s maturity. He was ten years older than most of the musicians he mentored, and he was 31 when Decca released his first album. He doesn’t appear to have ever doubted his abilities, writing his own songs and placing them alongside those of better-established blues musicians. He also did the design and artwork for many of his album covers.
Having fluid band lineups also gave Mayall the freedom to try new things. He always remained true to the blues, but he experimented with the form. He injected some jazz into Bare Wires, and when Taylor left, Mayall established a quartet without a drummer or lead guitarist. By then, Mayall had moved from Decca to Polydor Records. He had dropped the Bluesbreakers moniker, and his new group recorded The Turning Point under his own name.
Mayall’s quartet consisted of him on vocals, harmonica, and guitars, Johnny Almond on saxophone and flute, Jon Mark on acoustic guitar, and Steve Thompson on bass. They recorded The Turning Point in July 1969 at New York City’s Fillmore East. Almond’s saxophone and flute contrast well with Mayall’s impressive blues harp-playing, and his solos are as affecting and moving as the guitar solos on Mayall’s other albums. Mark’s skilled, highly rhythmic acoustic guitar provides a contrast to Mayall’s fine slide guitar on The Turning Point. The acoustic setting of the album also shows how subtle a singer Mayall could be. The same quartet recorded Empty Rooms, which Polydor released in early 1970. Mark and Almond left to form their own group soon after.
Mayall continued without a drummer for USA Union and Memories, both of which featured bass player Larry Taylor from Canned Heat, a band Mayall admired. The bassist played with Mayall until 1977, and appeared on later Mayall recordings. In 1972, Mayall brought jazz trumpeter Blue Mitchell onboard for Jazz Blues Fusion and Moving On, both recorded live. The albums mixed some jazz with Mayall’s blues, especially Moving On, which features an expanded horn section. Ten Years Are Gone, a double album from 1973, continued with a similar lineup, and consists of one LP of studio recordings and one of a live performance at the Academy of Music in New York City.
Mayall moved to Blue Thumb Records in the mid-1970s and released six albums—some of them very good—that got lost in the market upon release. “A week after they were released, you couldn’t find them in any store,” he told an interviewer. He continued recording and remained a popular live act. In 1982 he embarked on a tour with Taylor and McVie in his lineup. Three years later, he resurrected the Bluesbreakers name.
Over the next 15 years, Mayall recorded albums that gave wider exposure to guitarists Coco Montoya, Walter Trout, and Buddy Whittington, giving them a route to their own successful careers. He continued to record in the 2000s, adding to an impressive run of albums that reaffirmed his commitment to the blues, and repeatedly demonstrated his mastery of the form.
Over the last 25 years of his recording career, many famous musicians showed their respect and affection for Mayall by appearing on his records. He celebrated 40 years in music with Along for the Ride (2001), which has a long list of guests, including Steve Miller, Billy Gibbons, and Jonny Lang. Nobody Told Me (2018) has contributions from Joe Bonamassa, Todd Rundgren, Alex Lifeson, and many other big-shot guitarists. Mayall’s touring guitarist, Carolyn Wonderland, is also among the guitarists on the album. She was the first woman to have that job in one of his bands.
In 2005, Mayall was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his contributions to the arts, and in April of this year, he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of musical influence, along with Korner and Big Mama Thornton. It’s tempting to say that Mayall deserved recognition from the Rock Hall for the longevity of his career and consistently high quality of his own work, but Mayall’s music never really hit the rock airwaves or charts. He is, however, in the Blues Hall of Fame as a performer, and that is probably the more appropriate accolade.
Admittedly, Mayall was never a likely rock star. When he veered away from the blues it was into jazz, and his voice was in a higher register that fit better with blues than rock. His primary influence was J.B. Lenoir, who had a similar vocal timbre. Mayall wrote several songs in tribute to Lenoir and, like him, addressed social issues on occasion in his songs. Many of Mayall’s lyrics were autobiographical. Blues from Laurel Canyon is filled with Mayall’s impressions of his encounters with the counterculture in southern California. He moved there in the early ’70s and lived in the area for the rest of his life.
Mayall recorded 69 LPs, divided fairly evenly between live and studio releases. The recordings with Clapton, Green, and Taylor are essential to anyone interested in how British rock developed in the late ’60s, but there are other gems in Mayall’s lengthy discography. The Turning Point and Jazz Blues Fusion from the Polydor years are two of my favorites, but all of Mayall’s output for that label is worthwhile. His albums on Blue Thumb are perhaps a mixed lot, but Lots of People, a live recording from 1977, features a hot band, strong horn arrangements by Mayall, and some inspired playing.
Mayall’s recordings since the mid-1980s are good and often outstanding examples of his kind of blues. Some high points are Spinning Coin (1995), Tough (2009), and his final release, The Sun Is Shining Down (2022). There are few duds in Mayall’s catalog. He challenged himself and his listeners, but he rarely wandered far from his roots. John Mayall’s commitment to the music he loved never wavered, nor did his ability to present it with conviction.
. . . Joseph Taylor
josepht@soundstagenetwork.com
