John Mayall, who died today aged 90, was a true giant of British music. He, almost single handedly caused the revival of interst in the blues inthe UK in the late 1960’s. When I was growing up his ‘Blues From Laurel Canyon’ album was the vinyl that everyone who was interested in the blues wanted to own. His band ‘The Bluesbreakers’ gave an opportunity to so many young musicians who would go on to shape music for the remainder of the 20th Century and beyond – Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Taylor to mention just a few. I had the great joy to see John Mayall live in Gloucester in 1969 when he toured with his ‘Turning Point’ band to promote the album. The album quickly became one of my all time favourites and so I will use it as a focus for my tribute to Mayall. His biography being so extensive (It consists of 38 studio albums, 34 live albums, 24 compilaton albums, four EP’s, 44 singles and four video albums) as to otherwise overwhelm a single blog post.
The Turning Point is a live album by John Mayall, featuring British blues music recorded at a concert at Bill Graham’s Fillmore East on 12 July 1969. When John Mayall was starting another band after the break-up of the Bluesbreakers in May 1969, he decided to have a band that would play “low volume music” – or music without “heavy lead guitar and drums”.
The performers on the album were Mayall (vocals, harmonica, a slide and a Fender telecaster guitar, tambourine, and mouth percussion), Jon Mark (acoustic guitar), Steve Thompson (bass), and Johnny Almond (tenor and alto saxophone, flutes, and mouth percussion). All the songs on the album were written or co-written by John Mayall. Thompson co-wrote “California”, “Thoughts About Roxanne” and “Don’t Waste My Time”. Another track, “I’m Gonna Fight For You, J.B.”, is a tribute to the American blues guitarist J.B. Lenoir who died in 1967 and who had a deep influence on Mayall (this was Mayall’s second such tribute to the musician; “The Death of J.B. Lenoir” appeared on his earlier Crusade album). Two concerts took place, on 11 and 12 July. All tracks are from the second gig.
The album was produced by John Mayall, who also designed the packaging and was the album’s art director. The recording engineer was Eddie Kramer, who had engineered Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, among others. In 2001, a remastered CD reissue included three additional tracks from the same performance.
Earlier recordings of the same material, live from June 1969 in England, were released in 1999 on the first CD of the two-CD set The Masters (the second disc contains mostly interviews). A concert at the Marquee on June 30, 1969, featuring a similar playlist, has been issued. The music from the two CD’s of The Masters and the performance at the Marquee were released in 2004 as a 2-CD package, The Turning Point Soundtrack, credited to John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Portions of these earlier rehearsals and performances had been filmed, and were released as a 25-minute black-and-white 1996 BBC TV documentary The Turning Point. (They were included, as well, on a 2003 DVD, Godfather of British Blues/The Turning Point.).
