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John Mayall’s Fantastic Musical Career

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It was not until John Mayall was thirty that he gained notoriety in the musical landscape; he is one of those people who never rest when it comes to kill the routine of life and go out of the musical standards. Mayall’s father was a devotee of collecting jazz records expansively and John grew up listening to all of them. He has been influenced mostly by grand stars as Leadbelly, Albert Ammons and Eddie Lang.

John was born November 29, 1933 in a small town called Macclesfield, in England. His family was very humble and belonged to the working class; they had to face the awful effects of World War II. Being just thirteen, John started to instruct himself in the handling of different musical instruments; he loved to play the guitar, so he borrowed the instrument from other people, or bought second hand harmonicas or went to his neighbor’s house to play the piano.

John Mayall attended the local Art College and performed his three years of military service in Korea for the British Army. For these reasons, it was until 1956 that he started playing with some bands, such as “The Powerful Four” and “The Blues Syndicate”. As he became well know by the public, he moved to London, and together with Alexis Korner formed the band “John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers”.

One of his biggest friends and colleagues is Eric Clapton, with whom he recorded the first album for the Bluesbreakers. By the 1970’s, Mayall moved to the United States because he started to achieve commercial prestige. In the year 2005, England’s Queen granted John the OBE honor and he is nowadays stilll working for the love of his life: blues.




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