perjantai 24. kesäkuuta 2011

Power of the blues: John Mayall live in Malaga






In the history of British blues there are two names above all others: Alexis Korner and John Mayall. The formal
guitarist and piano player has lead bands with a group of musicians that would fill fictional  Who´s who in British Blues.


John Mayall in turn employed in his band in the  60's  called Blues Breakers a big  number of  later world-famous  musicians: Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Mick Taylor, Andy Fraser, and these are just a few
Born  1933, Mayall  still   tours around the world with his band.




Sunday June 19th it was time for a concert in Malaga, Teatro Cervantes. The band started the concert  at 20.15, which is a very early time in Spain. In  Cervantes, many earlier concerts (including Marianne Faithfull,  Van Morrison,  Bill Wyman & Rhythm Kings) have started  at  22 (10 pm).



The songs were in the beginning good old blues standards often heard  on his records. Maestro himself started singing, accompanying himself  with only  harmonica. The second song came from the whole band: Rocky Athas, guitar,Greg Rzab bass and  Jay Davenport drums. Mayall played keyboards and harmonica. Guitar unfortunately, he didn´t play during the evening at all.
The audience seemed to be more than happy with the band's skilled playing and tasty music. One and a half hour in set included only a few songs fr m his last album, Tough.

Most of us rock and blues fans want to see (and hear!) Legends on stage. John Mayall is really one of them. His music could be described as well as Eric Clapton's music has been described : It is like sex: at its  best, fantastic,even when worst, still enjoyable ...
The reason why Mayall has never risen to the same super-stardom as many of his disciples, however, is clear: man has (at least in my opinion) very little stage presence. To see and hear the man is, of course, experience, fantastic evening of great music.  

The man is already 69 years old. The tour program is tight. Let's hope that he´s gonna be still going strong for years to come. And if he still occasionally comes to play somewhere where the journey to see him is  less than 100 km (it was now only about 40 km) I sure want to go. Check the tour schedule and find out the nearest town to see and hear one of the living legends of the blues!

Bates Motel