John Mayall Tickets Continued
John Mayall is the son of Murray Mayall, a guitarist and jazz music enthusiast.
From an early age, he was drawn to the sounds of American blues players such as
Leadbelly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith, and Eddie Lang, and taught himself to play the
piano, guitars, and harmonica.
John Mayall attended art college and then had three years of national service
with the British Army in Korea. In 1956, he started playing blues with semi-professional bands
named The Powerhouse Four and, later, The Blues Syndicate. Under the influence of Alexis
Korner, he moved to London and formed John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
The band was always something of a training ground for blues musicians, and went
through several changes of personnel, before the arrival of Eric Clapton, with whom they
achieved their first commercial success. After Clapton left to form Cream, John Mayall's
Bluesbreakers took on a succession of other notable musicians, including Peter Green,
John McVie, Kal David, and Mick Taylor. Eric Clapton is quoted as saying, "John
Mayall has actually run an incredibly great school for musicians".
In the early 1970s, John Mayall achieved commercial success in the United
States and moved to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles. There, he was influential in the
developing careers of musicians such as Blue Mitchell, Red Holloway, Larry Taylor, and
Harvey Mandel.
