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Banquet of blues

John Mayall keeps on keepin' on
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By Darrell Jónsson
For The Prague Post
July 18th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
The indefatigable British blues master continues to tour and record, most recently cutting a tribute to Freddie King.
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John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers

When: Tuesday, July, 24 at 8
Where: Folimanka (Na Folimance 2, Prague 4)
Tickets: 735–935 Kč, available through Ticketpro

“Enjoying what you do” is part of the magic that John Mayall says has fueled a 40-year career as one of blues-rock’s longest-running band leaders.
Mayall’s voice over the phone is gentlemanly and as rock steady as his half-century journey through jazz and blues. “Anything you do is bound to influence one’s work in the end,” he says of his early years as a jazz player. And, in fact, there is something of the jazz finesse one might expect from band leaders like Stan Getz or Dave Brubeck that rides through much of his work.
Mayall’s birthplace — Macclesfield, near Manchester, England — may not be Mississippi. Yet he has honored the wellsprings of the blues time after time, not only by inspiring baby boomers on both sides of the Atlantic to dig deeper in the records bins for America’s blues originals, but also by his faithful renderings of honest and respectful arrangements of their works. In the liner notes of his 1967 LP Crusade, Mayall stated his intent directly: “I have chosen to campaign for some of my blues heroes by recording one number each from their own recorded repertoires.”
In recent years, original blues greats have returned the favor. John Lee Hooker appeared on Mayall’s 1999 CD Padlock on the Blues, and Otis Rush sat in on Mayall’s 2001 Along for the Ride (both on the Eagle Rock label). Never one to hide his sources, Mayall dedicates his 2007 CD In the Palace of the King (also on Eagle Rock) to the late blues guitar innovator Freddie King. With tracks such as Don Nix’s “Going Down” and Art Dellerson’s “Now I’ve Got a Woman,” it’s clear Mayall still has his Midas touch. As usual, a good part of his leverage is in selecting top road-tested sidemen — on this disc, Hank Van Sickle on bass, Joe Yuele on drums and Buddy Whittington doing some ripping guitar work, with Mayall moving between vocals, guitar, keyboards and harmonica.
Mayall, an astonishing 73 years old, began his solo recording career in 1964. Yet it is his 1966 Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (on the Decca label) that is often cited as a hallmark of British blues history. Clapton’s previous riffs in the Yardbirds had perked a few ears. But it was the Bluesbreakers’ interpretation of tunes like the Willie Dixon/Otis Rush-penned “All Your Love” that sent fans into the streets spray-painting “Clapton is God” on walls throughout the United Kingdom.
Blistering guitar moments became a highlight of Mayall’s recordings, despite his band’s revolving door of guitarists. On his 1967 A Hard Road, Peter Green’s extended solo on “The Supernatural” lifts Coltrane in a way that predates similar efforts by Carlos Santana by at least two years — and that was just the beginning.
“I am a very organized person,” Mayall says by way of explaining his penchant for including copious liner notes with most of his recordings. Yet when asked if his ongoing habit of listing the key of each song is done to inspire people to play along, he laughs and says, “Not really. I had heard so many albums that were done in one or two keys I wanted to make sure to add variety.”
Such thoughtful compositional detail made Mayall a master of the LP format by the end of the ’60s. With the help of future Rolling Stone Mick Taylor and jazz-rock monsters Colin Allen, John Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith, Mayall closed the decade with two seamless visionary LPs: Bare Wires and Blues from Laurel Canyon.
When Taylor left the Bluesbreakers to join the Rolling Stones, Mayall continued with consistent original product. The autumn of 1969 saw him embracing the cool-jazz cadence of his recently adopted California home, performing as an acoustic quartet with Jon Mark on guitar, Steve Thompson on bass and Johnny Almond on saxophone and flute. Concerts from that period, captured on Turning Point (recently re-released by Eagle Rock) with Mayall’s percussive arrangements on songs such as “The Laws Must Change” and “I’m Going to Fight for You J.B.,” were so polished that few listeners noticed they didn’t include a drummer. In 1970, Mayall recorded and toured with USA Union, a project that included former Canned Heat bassist Larry Taylor, Chicago-born guitarist Harvey Mandel and the late, legendary Don “Sugarcane” Harris, who was known for good reason as “the Hendrix of the electric violin.”
Since then, a year has seldom passed without Mayall either on the road or releasing an album or two, always selecting the best blues-rock sidemen available. The lineup since 1999 includes names like Steve Cropper, Billy Preston, Clapton, Taylor and Steve Miller.
If Mayall’s most recent recordings are any indication of his upcoming Prague show, it should leave concertgoers wondering why it took the Queen of England until 2005 to place Mayall on her OBE Honours list. If there were any musical justice in the world, Mayall would have been knighted a long time ago.

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (18/07/2007):

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