John Mayall

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John Mayall in the Hamburg factory (2017)

John Mayall , OBE (born November 29, 1933 in Macclesfield , Cheshire, England ) is a British musician. Along with Alexis Korner, he is considered one of the fathers of the British blues . Mayall is one of the pioneers who brought this style of music from the roots to experimental forms.

Life

John Mayall with band (2017)

John Mayall was born on November 29, 1933 in the small English town of Macclesfield near Manchester . He came into contact with music early on, as his father was an avid amateur jazz musician and taught him to play the guitar , banjo and ukulele as a teenager . In 1950, John Mayall performed in Manchester with a blues trio. His beginning musical career was interrupted by military service in Korea for three years. From 1955 he attended an art college, which he completed with an apprenticeship as a graphic designer .

Early in his career Mayall met musicians who would later become famous. Bassist John McVie played in the Blues formation Powerhouse Four , which he founded in 1962 and which was soon renamed the Blues Syndicate . After performing with Victor Brox , Alexis Korner became aware of Mayall and encouraged him to work as a musician in London. Mayall changed his band again and presented them in 1963 at the London Marquee Club under the name Bluesbreakers , which was to last for a long time.

John Mayall on keyboard (2017)

The line-up of the Bluesbreakers was constantly changing. Musicians like Eric Clapton , Peter Green , John McVie and Mick Taylor made significant career steps in this band. Mayall expanded on pure blues at an early age, for example on the 1966 album A Hard Road , where not only traditional sounds but also psychedelic experiments by Peter Green can be heard. In 1968 Mayall's style moved even further away from the classic blues on the album Blues from Laurel Canyon , which was not created under the name of the Bluesbreakers. The turning point from 1969, recorded with Jon Mark and Johnny Almond , on which Mayall (without his drummer Keef Hartley ) plays distorted lead guitar and keyboards, is considered to be trend-setting . Rumors that Mayall had performed at the Woodstock Festival , he denied in several interviews.

In the 1970s, albums of very different characters appeared. In 1979, Mayall's tree house in Laurel Canyon burned down , and numerous master tapes and diaries were lost. When the demand for blues music subsided from 1982, Mayall re-formed his band for several concerts, including with Mick Taylor. From this point on he played again with the traditional Bluesbreakers sound, with new songwriting. He played less keyboard instruments and preferred the (self-made) guitar.

... on the blues harp

On the occasion of his 40th stage anniversary in 2001, a number of important rock and blues musicians played together with Mayall for the album Along for the Ride ; so among others Gary Moore , Chris Rea and Otis Rush . John Mayall celebrated his 70th birthday in 2003 with a concert by the Bluesbreakers in Liverpool , where old friends Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and jazz musician Chris Barber also performed. His album Nobody Told Me , to which he invited Joe Bonamassa , Larry McCray , Todd Rundgren , Alex Lifeson , Steven Van Zandt and Carolyn Wonderland , received an award in the 2nd quarter of 2019 and was placed on the list of the best of the German Record Critics' Award : “Da shows the old master to all those who refer to him, once again with flying colors, how modern blues should sound! Instead of slowing down, he asked six well-known guitarists into the studio and recorded an album with them that was overflowing with freshness, zest for action and joie de vivre. "

To this day, Mayall tours regularly with the Bluesbreakers in the USA, Europe and Australia.

As an award, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.

Discography

  • 1965 John Mayall Plays John Mayall (Recorded Live at Klooks Kleek !) (Decca)
  • 1966 Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (UK: goldgold)
  • 1967 Raw Blues (with Otis Spann , Champion Jack Dupree and others) (Ace of Clubs)
  • 1967 A Hard Road
  • 1967 Crusade
  • 1967 The Blues Alone
  • 1968 Bare Wires
  • 1968 So Many Roads (compilation)
  • 1968 Blues from Laurel Canyon
  • 1968 The Diary of a Band Vol. 1 & 2 (live)
  • 1969 Looking Back (compilation [1964–68])
  • 1969 The Turning Point (Polydor, US:goldgold)
  • 1969 Empty Rooms
  • 1970 USA Union
  • 1970 Blues Giant (compilation)
  • 1971 Thru the Years (compilation, Decca SKL 5086 [1964–68])
  • 1971 Memories
  • 1971 Back to the Roots (double album)
  • 1972 Jazz Blues Fusion
  • 1972 Moving On (live)
  • 1973 Ten Years Are Gone
  • 1974 The Latest Edition
  • 1975 New Year, New Band, New Company (ABC)
  • 1976 Notice to Appear
  • 1976 A Banquet in Blues (with Rick Vito )
  • 1977 Primal Solos (compilation, Decca)
  • 1977 Lots of People (Recorded Live from the Roxy in Los Angeles)
  • 1977 A Hard Core Package
  • 1978 The Last of the British Blues - Live from Baltimore, Cincinnati & NY (MCA)
  • 1979 Bottom Line (DJM)
  • 1979 No More Interviews
  • 1980 Road Show
  • 1982 John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - The 1982 Reunion Concert
  • 1985 Behind the Iron Curtain (live in Hungary)
  • 1987 The Power of the Blues (live in Germany April 1987)
  • 1988 Archives to Eighties (compilation)
  • 1988 Chicago Line
  • 1990 A Sense of Place
  • 1993 Wake up Call (Silvertone Records)
  • 1995 spinning coin
  • 1995 Uncle John's Nickel (Limited Edition)
  • 1997 Blues for the Lost Days
  • 1999 Padlock on the Blues
  • 2001 Along for the Ride
  • 2002 Stories
  • 2003 70th Birthday Concert
  • 2005 Road Dogs
  • 2007 In the Palace of the King
  • 2009 Tough (Eagle Records)
  • 2014 A Special Life (Forty Below Records)
  • 2015 Blues Alive NYC 1976 (RockBeat Records)
  • 2015 Find a Way to Care (Forty Below Records) - PdSK -Bestenliste 4/2015
  • 2016 Talk About That (Forty Below Records)
  • 2018 Three For The Road - A Live Recording 2017
  • 2019 Nobody Told Me (Forty Below Records)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rockmusiklexikon (Europa), Vol. 1, Taurus Press 1986, pp. 487-491.
  2. ↑ Sheila Lennon's blog with a listing of 31 "confirmed" participants in the Woodstock Festival (Keef Hartley's confirmation came later.)
  3. ↑ Karl Leitner: Leaderboard 2-2019. May 15, 2019, accessed August 17, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Music Sales Awards: US UK
  5. ↑ http://www.schallplattenkritik.de/bestenlisten/774-bestenliste-4-2015

Web links

Commons : John Mayall  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME Mayall, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British co-founder of the English blues revival in the early 1960s
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Macclesfield , Cheshire, England