Jazz Articles about John Mayall
About John Mayall
Instrument: Voice / vocals
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsJohn Mayall: The Sun Is Shining Down
by Scott Gudell
British blues master John Mayall can still turn out a rich collection of originals and covers six decades, and approximately sixty albums, after his first songs were released in the early 1960s. Add the fact that he still has a knack for enlisting top guitarists--this time Mayall spotlights Mississippi born/Chicago bred Melvin Taylor among others--and it is a Brit-led blues bash at its best. Often considered the Godfather of British Blues, Mayall said during a 1980s interview that ...
read moreThe Sun Is Shining Down
by Doug Collette
Having announced he will be limiting his touring in the future, John Mayall doesn't seem to have lessened his engagement with recording. On the contrary, for The Sun Is Shining Down, 'The Godfather of British Blues' surrounds himself with a roster of high-profile contributors, all of whom play to their respective strengths and sound inspired collaborating with a genuine musical icon. Equally importantly, this fifth Forty Below Records studio outing (out of some forty overall) radiates a sense of deep ...
read moreThe First Generation 1965-1974
by John Kelman
What do guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Jon Mark, Harvey Mandel and Freddy Robinson, reed/woodwind multi-instrumentalists John Almond, Ray Warleigh, Alan Skidmore, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Red Holloway and Ernie Watts, bassists John McVie, Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser, Tony Reeves, Stephen Thompson and Larry Taylor, drummers Mick Fleetwood, Keef Hartley, Aynsley Dunbar, Jon Hiseman and Collin Allen, trumpeters Henry Lowther and Blue Mitchell, and violinist Don “Sugarcane" Harris all share in common? They are but a few of the notable ...
read moreBlues From Laurel Canyon: My Life As A Bluesman
by Doug Collette
Blues From Laurel Canyon: My Life As A Bluesman John Mayall with Joel McIver 336 Pages ISBN: #978-1785581786 Omnibus Press 2019 Blues From Laurel Canyon seems an odd assignation of a name for John Mayall's memoir, if only because that main title doesn't quite correspond to its subtitle My Life As A Bluesman. But in his very introduction to these three-hundred thirty-six pages, 'The Godfather of British Blues' clarifies the point, if only ...
read moreJohn Mayall: Nobody Told Me
by Doug Collette
Over the course of some fifty-plus years, the bands of John Mayall have served as a proving ground for some estimable guitarists. Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Peter Green are just the most famous axemen who've aided and abetted “The Godfather of British Blues." Yet, in all that extended time, he has never before had a female lead guitarist in any lineups until the enlistment of Texas wunderkind Carolyn Wonderland on Nobody Told Me. In keeping with other ...
read moreJohn Mayall: In The Pocket at 84
by Jim Worsley
For the past five and a half decades, John Mayall has written scores of both relevant and joyous music. It should come as no surprise that at the tender age of 84 he continues to do so. It soothingly, and ingeniously, seems to flow out of him like a calm, yet telling, river. Many years ago, he was dubbed the Father of the British Blues. Rightfully so, as in the early 1960's he created, or revolutionized (depending on ...
read moreJohn Mayall's Bluesbreakers: Live in 1967
by Doug Collette
Because his career didn't directly ascend to a higher profile subsequent to his tenures in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, guitarist Peter Green's membership in the group doesn't receive as much prominence as that of, Eric Clapton who became an icon of contemporary or Mick Taylor, who joined the Rolling Stones for arguably the greatest albums of their career. This despite the fact Green formed Fleetwood Mac with bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood when he left Mayall's auspices in 1967 ...
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