By Michael Swanger michael@dmcityview.com

John Mayall still carries the torch for the blues after all these years

English blues legend John Mayall says he doesn't know what drew him to the blues. He discovered them at an early age through his father's record collection while growing up in Macclesfield, Cheshire, far away from the Mississippi Delta and Chicago. But the 71-year-old blues icon knows why America's most influential form of music continues to stir his soul each night when he takes the stage.

"It's the excitement and the communication," he says. "It's a personal thing because of the music and the stories you tell. I always have a good time."

During the past 47 years, Mayall has shared his unbridled enthusiasm for the blues with millions of listeners. He has recorded 55 albums and performed countless concerts around the globe. Still, perhaps, he is best known for his ability to recognize young, talented musicians and take them under his wing. The list of them who have moved in and out of the Bluesbreakers reads like a Who's Who of rock 'n' roll, including Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce (Cream), John McVie, Pat Green and Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac), Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones) and Larry Taylor (Canned Heat).

"I have a large family of musicians. It's very gratifying and it's talked about a lot," he says. "We're all great friends, and even though we don't get to play together all the time, the friendships are there, and when we get together it's as though no time has passed."

At no time has that been more evident than in the past year or so as a number of famous alumni have reunited with Mayall and the Bluesbreakers for special performances. Last year, Mick Taylor joined the Bluesbreakers as a special guest for a tour of England. And in 2003, Clapton, Taylor and Chris Barber joined Mayall for a concert to celebrate the pioneer's 70th birthday. The performance was filmed and released as a DVD and CD, marking the first time in 38 years Mayall and Clapton shared the stage.

"That was really a thrill," Mayall says. "I was lucky everyone was available and willing to do it."

Mayall says when he started playing blues guitar around the house at the age of 13, he had no idea other musicians were interested in them. A devoted blues practitioner, he taught himself the basics of guitar and boogie-woogie piano, but was determined to pursue a career in graphic design. During the '50s, he says, England was dominated by traditional jazz sounds and there was no indication the blues would have an audience.

That, however, would change during the early '60s. Mayall cut his teeth playing in semi-professional bands from 1956 to 1962, but was inspired by Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated to move to London in 1963 and form the Bluesbreakers. A year later, he was playing enough gigs to justify quitting his day job as a studio manager for a graphic art firm, and released his first Decca single, "Crawling Up A Hill." By that time the beat boom was raging around him, yielding groups like the Beatles, the Stones, the Animals, the Spencer Davis Group and the Yardbirds - all of which were informed by the blues thanks to Korner, Cyril Davis and Mayall.

"I was just trying to get work and establish myself," Mayall says of his move to London. "There were others before me who kicked things off, but it came together in a short period of time and it was a happening scene."

Mayall's career, however, reached new heights in 1965 when he hired Clapton. The historic partnership produced a landmark album that broke the UK charts, launching their careers into the stratosphere and igniting a blues revival in Europe and the United States that would forever change the course of modern, electric blues.

"We hoped it would do well because it was something we believed in," Mayall says of the album. "It was very well received and helped us get a larger audience."

Most importantly, it helped introduce many Americans to the blues. Like most British blues players at the time, Mayall says he wasn't surprised American audiences weren't hip to the blues given the country's racial divide.

"In the '50s and '60s segregation was still going on, so it was common knowledge in Europe that America was a divided country in regard to white peoples' exposure to black music," he says. "In Europe, jazz and blues have been revered right from the '20s and onwards."

By 1967, Clapton, McVie and Fleetwood had left the Bluesbreakers, but by no means was the group stalled. Mayall soon recruited 18-year-old Mick Taylor, who, along with drummer Keef Hartley, helped usher in a new era for the band that included jazz and horns. Mayall even toured without a drummer during that period and released the legendary acoustic live album, "The Turning Point."

Soon after, however, Mayall made the permanent move from London to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles and began forming groups with American musicians like Blue Mitchell, Red Holloway, Freddie Robinson, Larry Taylor and Sugarcane Harris. And in 1979, he began collaborating with a singer-songwriter from Chicago, Maggie Parker, who joined the band and later became his wife.

With worldwide interest in the blues beginning to wane, Mayall stepped away from the Bluesbreakers in 1982, reuniting with McVie and Mick Taylor on special occasions. But soon a pair of new guitarists, Coco Montoya and Walter Trout, helped revive the Bluesbreakers for the next 10 years.

Following Montoya's departure in 1994, Mayall recruited Texas guitarist Buddy Whittington, whom he heard open for him at a 1991 gig in Fort Worth. Whittington quickly accepted Mayall's offer to join the Bluesbreakers and has been a driving force behind a string of new albums including "Spinning Coin," "Blue for the Lost Days," Padlock Blues," "Along for the Ride," and the latest, "Road Dogs," which includes 15 original tunes. Mayall says the current incarnation of the Bluesbreakers, which also includes drummer Joe Yuele and bassist Hank Van Sickle, is as talented and exciting as those of the past.

"It's always exciting to me to be playing with them," he says. "It's very stimulating, whoever the artists are, as long as they are creative and doing their best."

Though several musicians have left the Bluesbreakers and gone on to receive popular and critical acclaim, mainstream recognition has eluded Mayall. For example, he says he is miffed about not being nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "It's kind of mysterious to me, but whatever," he says. "One of these days, maybe."

Mayall may not be able to count himself among the kings of rock, yet, but earlier this year Queen Elizabeth named him an officer of the Order of the British Empire, alongside Brian May of Queen and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Next month, Mayall will attend a ceremony at Buckingham Palace to receive his medal from the Queen.

"That will be quite something," he says. "Who would have guessed that one?"
What isn't surprising, however, is Mayall's dedication to the blues. He plays more than 100 shows a year, from small clubs to theaters to festivals, packing his own equipment and running a small operation that includes his band and two vehicles. "We've got it down to a fine art with the four of us traveling," he says. "It's very simple and we like it that way."

Mayall, who turns 72 on Nov. 29, says he hasn't thought about retiring, but if he does, he says he wants to be remembered for the contributions he has made to the blues by his own freewill.

"I'd like people to know I had freedom to express myself without commercial interferences, and that's something to be said," he says.

Still, Mayall admits, he is merely one link in a long chain of performers who have dedicated their lives to keeping the blues alive.

"It's always held on because people recognize the honesty of it," he says. "It holds its own and will always be with us." CV

Steps ahead

By Michael Swanger michael@dmcityview.com

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch is always moving forward

Only a "poet of a pianist" like jazz musician Fred Hersch could possess the fortitude and creativity to tackle an array of projects as diverse as reinventing Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" in a large-scale setting, adapting standards by Thelonious Monk to solo piano and composing 24 variations on a Bach chorale. A seeker of new challenges, whether they stem from the piano or his work as a spokesman for AIDS services and educational agencies, a cause near to him given his 18-year struggle with HIV, Hersch's improvisational mindset begets inspiration at every turn.

"I like to try things," says the Ohio native who lives in New York. "Sometimes they're more successful than others. If I didn't want to take risks, I would do something else or be a different kind of musician."

In many regards, Hersch already is a "different kind of musician." Solo piano is an unusual specialty in jazz and he revels in its demands, creating orchestral and simple soundscapes alike.

"I like being able to use the entire range of the piano - from the very loud to the very quiet quickly," he says. "I have total harmonic and rhythmic freedom."

Unlike most jazz pianists, Hersch first studied classical music before transitioning to jazz during college. At the age of 4, he began studying the classical masters, but soon began to improvise on their arrangements while his family's collection of Broadway albums and sheet music introduced him to popular music.

His musical journey led him to Boston's New England Conservatory, where he graduated with honors in 1977. Afterward, he moved to New York where he quickly became one of the most in-demand pianists on the jazz scene, working as a sideman with Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Toots Thielemans and Gary Burton. He even formed a group with Ornette Coleman alumnus Ed Blackwell and Charlie Hayden.

But it was his short time spent in Iowa that had the most profound affect on his career. Hersch followed a friend to Grinnell College in 1973. Though he enrolled for only a semester, he credits his time spent there with introducing him to his life's work.
"That's where I heard real jazz for the first time," he says. "I didn't last long there, but I got what I needed."

Jazz music, Hersch says, is the best vehicle for his set of skills as a pianist, composer and improviser, allowing him to interpret a variety of idiosyncratic styles, ranging from classical to popular.

"If it's a good tune, it's a good tune," he says. "Jazz musicians have always appropriated pop songs of their day, except current popular music, which isn't about songwriting - it's about videos, naval rings, choreography and image."

Though Hersch might be best known for his solo work, his output spans a variety of musical configurations. He tours or records with duos, trios, ensembles and orchestras across the United States and Europe. And each year he releases a solo album.

Hersch also stays busy with a multitude of offstage tasks dedicated to supporting a number of AIDS groups, including Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS. The New York-based group raises money for AIDS services throughout the country, and Hersch, who is often called upon to serve as a spokesman and fund raiser, has recorded four albums with other jazz musicians to benefit the group.

"I seem to be the go-to person for gay and HIV issues in the jazz community here," Hersch says. "If I can be helpful, I'm going to do my best to be."

Hersch says AIDS, like music, influences and affects his life, but doesn't pigeonhole him.

"It's impacted every aspect of my life, but it doesn't define me," he says. "Sometimes it can be a little exhausting, but it hasn't stopped me from doing what I want to do. I have to keep moving forward." CV

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