Wow. John Mayall WITHOUT the Bluesbreakers?? How can that be?? I don't much like change. Change is hard for me to accept. Especially when it involves something or someone that has been around FOREVER. When I stop to think about who, and what, and how MUCH John Mayall brought to us WITH the Bluesbreakers........ well, it just boggles the mind. It occurs to me though, that if John felt the same way about change as I do...... that we may never have known some of the great artists who spent time with him before going on to other things...............
BOY, do I feel priviliged to have seen John while he was accompanied by his Bluesbreakers (including the INCOMPARABLE, jovial, and super friendly Mr. Buddy Whittington), not once, but twice during the past year. What an incredible musician and generous human being John is.
It doesn't surprise me a bit that he might want to start taking it a bit easier at age 75. Good God - I watched the man set up his own equipment AND man his own merchandise booth!!! I did!!! I couldn't believe my eyes...... particularly as people would walk in the door of The Coach House and stroll within two feet of John and not even stop......... I think they thought he was someone's dad or something....... I asked him directly , "John? Do you think that people KNOW that it's YOU standing here??" He shrugged his shoulders casually and replied "Oh...... sometimes they do, sometimes they don't." It didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. He is a man who is VERY comfortable in his own skin. I spent at least an hour off and on chatting with him that night....... having him sign a few very special things for a very special friend. It made the circumstances later in the evening much easier to take........
Our seats that night were in the CENTER of the stage, abutting the stage. Great!!! Right??? Not necessarily........ depends on who's playing, and what they're playing. John set up his keyboard right in front of me, and his music stand in front of it. It made for a less than perfect viewing experience, believe me. He played his guitar while standing BEHIND his keyboard, and he barely came out while playing his harmonica. I saw MUCH more of John's equipment than I ever saw of him. LOL!!! Actually, it was SO bad, that I just spent most of the evening laughing about it. Whatcha gonna do??
John has done some mighty special, personal things for me and I will be forever grateful. Earlier in the year, in a completely unsolicited move, he autographed a cap and handed it to me, leaning in, and saying softly, "Here....... for your Mum......" (who he knew had just had cancer surgery). We both welled up. As I say...... WHAT a nice man.
Beyond all of his talents as a singer, songwriter, and accomplished player of more instruments than I can name, John's particular gifts of FINDING such incredible players to become his Bluesbreakers, and allowing them the spotlight is unmatched. What a life he's led. I'd like to mention a couple of other Bluesbreakers that Duncan didn't list.
One of our FAVORITE former Bluesbreakers is an incredible guitarist named Kal David. We saw Kal join John and the band on the stage last year..... and he played with him originally during the 80's. He's just FANTASTIC - and ANOTHER super nice guy. He just happens to live right here in Palm Springs. I'm going to post some video of him soon from a great show last May at a very intimate venue here in town. I actually had to lean BACK in my chair several times in order to fit both Kal's face and guitar (a great old Firebird) in the frame. He really is phenomenal and John has a LOT of respect for him. Check him out for yourselves:
www.kaldavid.com
Two other favorite past Bluesbreakers would be John Mark and Johnny Almond who went on to form the band, Mark-Almond. Haunting melodies, FANTASTIC vocals, deep lyrics, great flute, keyboards, guitar.....much more mellow than their work with John though.....a bit blues, a dash jazz, a drop of latin beat.....here...... this is one of my faves from them.........
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqs7_9pyZM
We have tickets to the Blues Harp Blowout that John mentioned....... where else but The Coach House, on February 6th. In addition to Mark Hummel, John will be joined by Charlie Musselwhite, Curtis Salgado, Lee Oskar, and Johnny Dyer. THAT should be something else, indeed.
We wish ALL of the Bluesbreakers the best of luck in their future endeavors. Meanwhile, I can assure you that whatever John is doing, if it's taking place nearby, we'll be there to watch, listen, and visit. I hope you all will take the opportunity to do the same thing while this legend is still working hard for us.
Here's a link to the original newletter from John's website:
http://www.johnmayall.com/news.html
and, from Mark Hummel's site, a schedule of the Blues Harp Blowouts..... at least four of which John will be participating in........
http://www.markhummel.com/calendar.html
and the Coach House calendar from February:
http://www.thecoachhouse.com/
Get out and enjoy!!!!
Libby
I know that Joe could play one of those kid's guitars with the plastic strings and make it sound good-
Bill S.
