John Mayall Comments on Some of His Most Is One Thing That’S Kept Me in Shape
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ISSUE #36 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #36 MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN How do you keep up at 80? because there’s a 50-year gap between MAYALL ON MAYALL The fact that I haven’t abused my body with the two versions. It goes down very drugs or alcohol for the last 30 years or more well in performances. John Mayall comments on some of his most is one thing that’s kept me in shape. I’ve had noted releases. a healthy life, a special life—which is why I’ve Mind playing fan favorites nightly? named the album that. It’s difficult to say No, because we play them differently. There’s BLUES BREAKERS why I’m still so healthy, but I don’t feel the so much creativity within this band that even WITH ERIC elements of age whatsoever. My bandmates if we play songs that are really old, we still CLAPTON (1966) are way, way younger than I am but we’re bring up-to-date energy to them. We haven’t “It is a classic because all probably in the same state of health. I been playing “Room to Move” nightly in the it shows Eric at his haven’t found anything going wrong yet, past few years. But sometimes I’ll forget absolute peak. I think and I’ll keep going till something different that it’s a different audience every night he’d tell you that it was a pure thing—no happens. We don’t have days off when we and the new people want to hear it, so I’ve commercial aspect to it at all. We never go on the road, so it all gets consolidated. been playing an abbreviated version. Instead expected it to be any great shakes, we just We can do 100 shows with no problem. of endless solos, I’ve trimmed it down so wanted to make an honest album.” This year alone we’ve got 136 dates. I just it’s just the tune at the front, harmonica love what I’m doing. breakdown in the middle, and then out. BLUES FROM It comes down to about three and a half LAUREL CANYON Do you prefer to record quickly? minutes, and we throw it in as an encore. (1968) By the time we get into the studio the songs And it’s worked very well for us. “It was recorded during are already chosen, so the day before we a three-week vacation run through them and get the arrangements Why list the key of each song? in L.A. That was the sorted out. When we go in the studio we’re I’ve always done that in liner notes because turning point for me with regard to where I there from noon to six—regular, sensible hours. budding musicians appreciate it. For some wanted to live for the rest of my life. Within reason many can’t figure out what key it is on a year I had bought a house there, and I’ve Why produce yourself? their own, and they find it helpful. They can lived there ever since.” I feel very comfortable with my band. We’ve pick up a harmonica or a guitar and know been together long enough that we can read what key to pursue. It’s something I get lots THE TURNING Jeff each other’s minds, and we have a lot of of comments about. POINT (1969) F asano “I’m always trying to Were you a jazz fan before the blues? do new things, and if ‘My bands are an Actually, a mixture of both. My father’s record I’m stuck in a rut then collection was mainly jazz—Louis Armstrong, it’s time for a change. adventure, not just Duke Ellington and others from the 1920s I wanted to leave the drums out and go and ’30s. But also in there were Lonnie acoustic—and it worked out really well. The a job.’ Johnson and Eddie Lang. Right from the very entire repertoire we had then was on that JOHN MAYALL beginning I was listening to Josh White, Big album.” For the British blues master, music proves the fountain of youth Bill Broonzy and all these great bluesmen, so energy and fun. We’ve had producers in the I’ve had a grounding in both blues and jazz. JAZZ BLUES FUSION By Jeff Tamarkin past who’ve directed traffic, so to speak, but (1972) ultimately it’s always down to me musically. Why was the blues so popular in the “I wanted to work with A TOWERING FIGURE AMONG THE PROGENITORS OF and energy so you can get it across to the audience. They don’t U.K. in the ’60s? the jazz musicians British blues, John Mayall’s dedication to his craft remains as strong want to see somebody sitting around in a chair with no voice left.” “World Gone Crazy” is very political. I think because Europeans didn’t have that I revered from as when he first discovered the music. Now 80, the blues pioneer The musicians on A Special Life—guitarist Rocky Athas, bassist If you’re doing an album you should include this music on their own doorstep, they my teenage years. still relishes the road—playing more than 100 gigs a year—and the Greg Rzab and drummer Jay Davenport—take their place among one song that touches on the world around tended to idolize the black musicians The thrill was to get someone like recording studio. In fact, Mayall’s latest record, A Special Life, finds a rather elite grouping. Various lineups of Mayall’s bands have us. It’s good subject matter, and that’s what who were probably separated from the [trumpeter] Blue Mitchell, who I never would him as excited as ever—and that’s saying something for a guy who featured future rock icons—particularly his most celebrated group, the the blues is all about at its finest points—it white population in America and were not have thought I could meet, let alone play has more than 60 albums to his credit. Bluesbreakers, which at one time or another included Eric Clapton should be talking about things people can appreciated as much here. Europeans held with. It was a great experience, and I “I’m having a lot of fun because my band is so great,” he says. and Jack Bruce (Cream), Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), and Mick relate to. Perhaps you’re putting the seeds all these musicians in great reverence, and learned a lot.” “There’s so much energy among the four of us that it’s always a Fleetwood, Peter Green and John McVie (Fleetwood Mac). “I’ve never of ideas into other people and giving them we lapped it all up. It was an incredibly pleasure. There’s so much material to choose from when we play been able to explain why I was able to find them all, other than the fact something to think about. When I’m about stimulating time in Britain because the boom ALONG FOR THE live and so much improvisation that goes on. So when we went into that I’ve been listening to music all my life,” says the Cheshire, England, to do an album I think, “What am I going happened so suddenly. RIDE (2001) the studio to do this album, everyone knew what everybody else native. “I know what to look for when I hear it. I find it very easy to to write about?” “World Gone Crazy” is I wanted to round up was doing—and it only took us three days.” know it’s the right person. A bandleader has that element in his being.” relevant because you only need to pick up How did you feel about bands like the musicians I’d played The album is “a statement about enjoying my later years,” Mayall A longtime resident of Southern California, Mayall discussed the paper to see it’s nuts out there. Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds? with, like Peter Green says, “but I don’t feel old. This kind of music demands full health his love of the blues—past, present and future. It was great. There was a feeling of and Mick Taylor, “Heartache” was on your first record— camaraderie among all of the bands. Each and others I revered but hadn’t played why rerecord it? band had a different slant on the blues, and with, like Jeff Healey, Billy Preston and ‘If you’re doing an album you should include one We started playing it live and developed it was exciting to hear everyone’s take on Billy Gibbons. It was great fun putting it into something new, and it seemed like it. Dixieland jazz all basically had the same together an army of musicians—and it all came song that touches on the world around us.’ one that would fit the album—especially instrumentation and the repertoire was all the together very quickly. 46 47 M mag 36.indd 46 9/12/14 5:18 PM M mag 36.indd 47 9/12/14 5:19 PM ISSUE #36 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #36 MMUSICMAG.COM MUSICIAN Mauricio Santana/LatinContent/Getty Images Onstage in São Paulo, Brazil, 2013 ‘The blues can’t go out of fashion BLUES UNIVERSITY John Mayall’s bands, especially in the early because it reflects what’s going on in years of his career, doubled as a virtual school of the blues. His Bluesbreakers provided a the world.