Happy Birthday John Mayall!

Blues legend John Mayall turns 75 years old today and we'd like to wish him many more birthdays to come! Perhaps the most important and influential bandleader in the British blues, Mayall's 1960s-era Bluesbreakers bands provided a career-making boost to talents like guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor as well as future Cream member Jack Bruce and Fleetwood Mac founders John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. The 1966 Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton album jump-started the whole British blues boom of the '60s.

Although his reputation was built on a string of acclaimed albums during the 1960s and '70s that mixed blues music with rock and jazz, Mayall has never rested on his considerable laurels, and his Bluesbreakers bands of the 1980s launched the career of fretburners like Walter Trout and Coco Montoya. At 75, Mayall has slowed down a bit, and he disbanded his popular Bluesbreakers this year. Blues music is in his blood, however, and Mayall has several 2009 appearances already booked, including several February dates with harp blowers Charlie Musselwhite, Mark Hummel, Curtis Salgado, and others.

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John Mayall photo by Caroline Greyshock, courtesy Silvertone Records