British blues pioneer John Mayall, whose 1960s music collective, the Bluesbreakers, helped to facilitate a fertile period of rock and brought guitarists like Eric Clapton to the limelight, has died at the age of 90, his family announced.
Mayall, who doubled as a singer and multi-instrumentalist regarded as “the godfather of British blues,” was known for his open-door policy that made some great artists in the genre hone their craft with him and his band. The Blues legend “passed away peacefully in his California home” on Monday, according to a statement that was shared on his Facebook wall. The statement did not state the reason for his death.
His contribution to 1960s rock and beyond is very large. Members of the Bluesbreakers band later went to form their own groups or join others, including Cream, Fleetwood Mac, the Rolling Stones, and a lot more.
Mayall relocated to London from northern England in 1963, when he was just 39. He gave up his profession as a graphic designer to embrace a career in the blues when he sensed revolution in the air. He joined many young guitarists, including Clapton, Peter Green (later of Fleetwood Mac), and Mick Taylor (who helped form the Rolling Stones).
His band released its maiden album in 1966, “Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton.” The blues music that he planned in British venues was “a novelty for white England,” he said to AFP in 1997. That album was a bang, pushing Clapton to fame and bringing a wave of popularity to more raw and personal blues music.
Mayall relocated to California in 1968 and went around America extensively in 1972. He recorded a very good number of albums in the 1960s, including “Crusade,” “A Hard Road,” and “Blues From Laurel Canyon.” Dozens more followed in the 1970s and up to his latest, “The Sun Is Shining Down,” in 2022.
Mayall was awarded an OBE, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in 2005.
