LONDON – John Mayall, British blues musician whose influential Bluesbreakers band was a training ground for Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood and many other stars, has died. He was 90 years old.
A statement about Mayall’s Instagram page announced his death on Tuesday, saying the musician died on Monday at his home in California. “The health problems that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of the world’s greatest road warriors,” the post read.
He is credited with helping to develop the English approach to Chicago-style urban rhythm and blues, which played an important role in the blues revival of the late 1960s. At various times, the Bluesbreakers included Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, later from Cream; 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 formed the Mark-Almond Band.
Mayall protested in interviews that he was not a talent scout, but played for the love of the music he 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 might be a good friend of mine,” Mayall said in an interview with the Southern Vermont Review. “It’s definitely a family. It’s actually a small kind of thing.”
A small but lasting thing. Although Mayall never approached the fame of some of his illustrious former students, he was still performing into his late 80s, delivering his version of Chicago blues. The lack of recognition irritated him a little, 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 story on me,” he said in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. “I’m still an underground artist. .”
Known for his blues harmonica and keyboards, Mayall was nominated for a Grammy 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 Down.” He also gained official recognition in Britain with the award of OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
He was selected for Rock 2024 & Roll Hall of Famer and his 1966 album “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton” is considered one of the best British blues albums.
Mayall was once asked if he continued playing to meet a demand or simply to show that he was still capable.
“Well, the demand is there, fortunately. But it’s actually not for either of those two things, it’s just for the love of music,” he said in an interview with Hawaii Public Radio. “I just get together with these guys and we work out.”
Mayall was born on 29 November 1933 in Macclesfield, near Manchester in central England.
Sounding like an unlucky bluesman, Mayall once said: “The only reason I was born in Macclesfield was because my father drank, and that was where his favorite pub was.”
His father also played guitar and banjo, and his boogie-woogie piano records captivated his teenage son.
Mayall said he learned to play the piano one hand at a time — a year in his left hand, a year in his right, “so I wouldn’t get all confused.”
The piano was his main instrument, although he also played the guitar and harmonica, as well as singing with a distinctive, strained voice. Assisted only by drummer Keef Hartley, Mayall played every other instrument on his 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 absorb the nascent blues scene led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Eric Burdon were, among others, attracted by the sound.
The Bluesbreakers relied on a fluid community of musicians who moved in and out of various bands. Mayall’s biggest departure was Clapton, who left the Yardbirds and joined the Bluesbreakers in 1965 because he was dissatisfied with the commercial direction of the Yardbirds.
Mayall and Clapton shared a passion for Chicago blues, and the guitarist later recalled that Mayall had “the most incredible record collection I’ve ever seen.”
Mayall tolerated Clapton’s disobedience: he disappeared a few months after joining the band, then reappeared the same year, leaving aside newcomer Peter Green, then left permanently in 1966 with Bruce to form Cream, which soared to success commercial, leaving Mayall away. back.
Clapton, interviewed for a BBC documentary about Mayall in 2003, confessed that “to some 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 simply admire and respect his steadfastness,” 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, valued the wide freedom Mayall allowed his soloists.
“You would have complete freedom to do whatever you wanted,” Taylor said in a 1979 interview with writer Jas Obrecht. “You can also make as many mistakes as you want.”
Mayall’s 1968 album, “Blues from Laurel Canyon,” signaled a permanent move to the United States and a change in direction. He broke up the Bluesbreakers and worked with two guitars and drums.
The following year he released “The Turning Point”, arguably his most successful release, with an atypical four-man acoustic lineup including Mark and Almond. “Room to Move”, a song from that album, was an audience favorite in Mayall’s later career.
The 1970s found Mayall personally at a low ebb, but still touring and playing over 100 shows a year.
“Throughout 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 – breaking one of the Mayall jumps and leaves him limping.
“That was an 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 permanently retiring the Bluesbreaker name and, in 2013, fronted the John Mayall Band.
Mayall and his second wife, Maggie, divorced in 2011 after 30 years of marriage. They had two children.
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