blues breakers

John Mayall plays harmonica live in Amsterdam in 1967, the year in which he released three classic albums—Crusade, A Hard Road, and The Blues Alone–and a year after Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. Those recordings alone were enough to make him a legend, but much more followed.

Photo by Laurens Van Houten/Frank White Photo Agency

The father of British blues, who died this week at age 90, is remembered in testimonials from Robben Ford, Rick Vito, Coco Montoya, Buddy Whittington, Carolyn Wonderland, and others from his post-Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor years. Dan Forte also looks at Mayall’s compelling discography.

In 2021, the Madfish label released a 35-CD boxed set with a 168-page hardcover book on John Mayall, then 87. Let that sink in. How many blues artists, living or dead, ever received that kind of treatment? What made John Mayall: The First Generation even more remarkable is that it only documented the British blues legend’s career up to 1974—at that point, 10 of his 55 years as a recording artist.

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John Mayall in the late ’80s, in a promo shot for his Island Records years. During his carreer, he also recorded for the Decca (with the early Bluesbreakers lineups), Polydor, ABC, DJM, Silvertone, Eagle, and Forty Below labels.

He was dubbed “the father of British blues,” but Mayall’s influence was worldwide, and he nurtured some of the finest guitarists in the genre, including Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Harvey Mandel, Coco Montoya, and Walter Trout. Mayall died at his California home on Monday, at age 90.

John Mayall’s career spanned nearly 70 years, but it only took his first four albums to cement his legendary status. With his initial releases with his band the Bluesbreakers—1966’s Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton; ’67’s A Hard Road, with Peter Green on guitar; plus the same year’s Crusade, which showcased Mick Taylor—and his solo debut The Blues Alone, also from 1967, Mayall introduced an international audience of young white fans to the decidedly Black and decidedly American genre called blues. In the subsequent decades, he maintained an active touring and recording schedule until March 26, 2022, when he played his last gig at age 87. It was reported that he died peacefully, on Monday, in his California home, at 90.

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