Location: Udine / Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine / Italy
Date: Friday, March 22, 2019
John Mayall is the man, and one of the most important musical figures who carried American (especially Chicago) blues over to Europe. That was a long time ago, back in the sixties. It was then, especially in the second half of that decade, that the real white blues boom, or the British blues wave, so to speak, kicked off, riding on the wings of Mayall’s The Bleusbreakers, whose early era was marked by his collaboration with future blues icons Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. John Mayall, a kind of father of that British revolution and a builder of the solid foundations of European rhythm and blues, has lived through every storm with his tireless activity, and today he’s a hefty 85 years old. And? He’s still moving. While his “student” fills stadiums with crowds of 100,000 (and more) – I’m talking about “Slowhand”, of course – one of the last living fossils of the blues stomps across the stages of respectable indoor venues that hold a few thousand people. It’s been a long time since I first saw John Mayall live. It was April 8, 2003, in a very empty Orpheum Teatr in Graz, where he presented his album “Stories” and we trembled before him in awe, because even then, sixteen years younger, he carried the status of a great cult figure of world blues.
Now, John Mayall, the root of all roots, is above all a singer-songwriter, vocalist, keyboardist, harmonica player and guitarist, whatever blues activism he’s shown over the years. This year he released the new studio album “Nobody Told Me”, which came out exactly one month before Mayall arrived in Udine, Italy. John Mayall is accompanied by a trio of musicians. Alongside drummer Jay Davenport and bassist Greg Rzab, who have worked with the revered blues icon since 2009, Mayall added a new member to his backing band last year. She’s the first female guitarist in Mayall’s career to find herself in one of the incarnations of his backing lineup. That’s Carolyn Wonderland. When you think of how many outstanding guitarists have passed through the Bluesbreakers lineup over the years (besides the ones listed above, you have to mention at least Henry “Coco” Montoya, Walter Trout and Buddy Whittington), it’s clear that Wonderland must be a truly special guitarist. The first woman in Mayall’s more than 60-year career to climb into the lead guitar spot, she has released a pile of albums with The Imperial Crowns as well as a nice bunch of solo studio albums, and she’s also won a heap of prestigious awards in the blues category. This woman is no joke, and the show in Udine confirmed it.
Opening the night in a rather sluggish venue that was still radiating a fair bit of emptiness was local blues singer-songwriter Francesco Piu. Strapped into an acoustic folk guitar and going the “one man band” route, he pulled himself out of the situation well, standing under the glare of the stage lights, totally “naked and exposed”. There was no hope of the kind of ingenuity and skills you’d get from Ian Siegal and similar aces this time, but still. With what Francesco brought to the stage, he fully lived up to the role of “warm-up act”. The slide playing, the licks inherited from the Mississippi Delta, a surprisingly good command of English in the verses and, of course, constantly dictating the rhythm by tapping his foot on the floor, along with a convincing, mildly throaty vocal delivery, won people over completely and made for an exemplary overture to the rest of the evening.The theater filled up nicely in the meantime, and only a few seats in the stalls stayed empty. Most people had logically come to see John Mayall. As is his habit, he took care of selling official merchandise himself before the show, and when the house lights finally went down theatrically, he was also the first to step to the front of the stage and greet the audience. No special pomp, but enough to make the hall roar. As always, Mayall loaded the set with a solid helping of covers. Right at the start, with him mostly sticking to lead vocals, electric piano and harmonica, the band worked through Nothing To Do With Love, originally by Jerry Lynn Williams, followed by Why Did You Go Last Night, originally written by Clifton Chenier. The band kept to covers with the hugely fun Dirty Water (orig. The Standells) too, where Mayall picked up his customized guitar with a distinctly smaller body. At this point Mayall, considering his hefty 85 years, showed his one vulnerability, which is nothing new. His soloing. Right there, one badly measured note contributed a clearly audible slip. Luckily John is well aware of this weakness, so he’d rather stick primarily to vocals, keyboards and harmonica, and for that very reason he has always been backed in his lineup by sculpted masters of blues guitar. Wonderland belongs among them, and she warmed her fingers up to the right temperature in no time, proving with her hand skills already in the opening part of the show why she’s won a whole heap of prestigious awards (including in the category for best vocalist). If not earlier, she knocked everyone out especially with her own Two Trains, where she also showed what an excellent singer she is, weaving in engravings of soul and, with the punch of Aretha Franklin, absolutely dominating the venue. It was moving when memories of the days of hanging out with Peter Green were stirred up as You Don’t Love Me rang out, and Mayall by no means forgot to showcase the new album “Nobody Told Me” (2019), as the band tackled What Have I Done Wrong, joined in the second half of the show by the excellent Distance Lonesome Train. In the latter, Carolyn Wonderland exploded at full tilt on electric lap steel, which the caring bandleader Mayall introduced with the following explanation: “This song requires Dobro and a seat” (old-school style, that is, since before the lap steel they played slide on resonator guitars). Wonderland is also special in another way. She doesn’t use a pick and does everything with her fingers and fingerpicking, which gives her guitar’s sound that much more of an organic character, or natural tones.
John Mayall skillfully and expertly filled the gaps between songs with talks to the audience. More than once he introduced the backstories of the songs themselves. Before One Life To Live, with which the band touched on the Trout/Montoya Bluesbreakes era, Mayall said he wrote the song based on experiences left by his military service in 1952. It must be stressed that, in his later years, Mayall still preserves a very exemplary, clear and sufficiently strong expressive nature in his vocal bearing and vocal character. He’s also still solid on Rhodes electric piano and Hammond organ, and of course on harmonica. As far as vocals go, they still serve him very well, because his well-preserved voice continues to let him deftly switch between the different vocal approaches that individual songs in the repertoire demand. With the fun The Devil Must Be Laughing the band touched on the previous album “Talk About That” (2017), and with Early In The Morning Mayall paid tribute to the old band Louis Jordan & Tympany Five, whose hits he grew up on in the thirties and forties, and where you could trace the influence on Mayall’s later infatuation with rhythm and blues. After that song, the quartet dove into Mayall’s beloved concert standard, Otis Rush’s So Many Roads, and the next one, Chicago Line, gradually signaled the end of the regular part of the show. The band backed up its razor-sharp take on this Bluesbreakers standard with the expected extended jam, which didn’t leave out drum and bass guitar solos either.
The crowd burst into huge ovations several times, but the loudest was of course the one that seemed to have no end and with which they called Mayall and his backing crew back to the stage one last time. For a farewell the band tore into the fun I Want All My Money Back, closing an excellent show that lasted an hour and a half. John Mayall keeps up incredible vitality for his advanced years. He radiated great spirits and plenty of agility on stage the whole time, handling harmonica, keyboards and singing in the same breath, deftly, confidently and with plenty of experience. As for stage form, which the ravages of time can visibly chip away at over a long career like the one belonging to the revered gentleman and blues giant John Mayall, that kind of doubt, even after the experience in Udine, is completely superfluous, unnecessary and pointless.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
