John Mayall is a British guitarist, keyboardist and composer and one of the people who made blues music immensely popular in the 1960s, John Mayall was the “godfather of British blues”.
He has accompanied generations of iconic players, including guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, while his rhythm sections from that period included bassists John McVie, Jack Bruce and Larry Taylor as well as drummers Mick Fleetwood and Aynsley Dunbar.
John Mayall was known in his younger years as a somewhat authoritarian bandleader. An anecdote mentions that in the van on the way back from a gig he would sometimes order band members to put a guitar amplifier on his lap so that he could lie down. It is striking that in the early period the turnover in his bands was very high, perhaps because Mayall was experimenting and searching for the right combination and the best sound. He always managed to attract talented musicians and they were given many musical opportunities by him. It is a fact that John Mayall encouraged Eric Clapton to sing as well. John McVie was ‘his’ bass player from the beginning in 1964.
In 1965, with Eric Clapton as their new guitarist, the Bluesbreakers started to attract a lot of attention. That summer the band recorded a few songs for a single, “I’m Your Witchdoctor” with “Phone Blues” (released in October). In August of that year, however, Clapton left for Greece with a group of relative musical amateurs who called themselves the Glands. John Weider, John Slaughter and Geoff Krivit tried to fill the empty spot as Bluesbreaker guitarist, but eventually Peter Green took over. John McVie was fired and Jack Bruce of the Graham Bond Organization played bass for the next few months.
In November 1965, Clapton returned and Green left because Mayall had guaranteed Clapton his place in the Bluesbreakers when he tired of the Glands. McVie was allowed to return and Bruce left to join Manfred Mann, but not before a live performance of the Mayall-Clapton-Bruce-Flint line-up was recorded on Mayall’s two-track tape recorder at the Flamingo Club in London in November. The same line-up also entered the studio to record a planned single, “On Top Of The World”, which was not released at that time. John Mayall and Eric Clapton recorded a few songs without the others. Some of the songs from the album Bluesbreakers With Clapton are “All Your Love”, “Hideaway” and “Parchman Farm”.
Another master blues guitarist who started with John Mayall was Walter Trout. Mayall is still active in music with about 120 performances a year. Mayall is an excellent piano, organ and guitar player. His playing on the blues harp is also praised. His love for blues and jazz came from listening to his father’s collection of jazz and blues records. A bluesman who inspired him was J.B. Lenoir. John Mayall continued to perform live until 2021. The Covid-19 crisis and his advanced age were the reason why he stopped.