About John Mayall

"John Mayall's inestimable influence on the evolution of British blues stems more from his talents as a bandleader than from his own talents as a musician. While he's a very gifted instrumentalist, particularly on blues harp, it's his unerring ear for recognizing raw talent that's made John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, in all its incarnations, the legend that it is today...John Mayall evolves by not evolving. At 73, he maintains a vibrancy in his music that never sounds dated. Part of that is his unabashed love for what he's doing. More importantly for us, what he loves happens to be the blues. He's gone through a lot of changes through the years, as we all have, refining his sound, flirting with jazz and boogie, but he always returns to his first love. And despite the multitude of personnel changes, his version of the blues is, and will always be, essentially John Mayall." –- The New York Times (January 28, 2007)