Rating:
Genre:
Blues
Release Date: 11/15/2005
Rolling with the Blues chronicles seven
John Mayall concerts played between 1972 and 1982.
Mayall had given up trying to maintain and support a regular backing group by the early '70s, and was instead working with different configurations for specific gigs. For the 1972 Frankfurt show that opens this two-disc set (a third disc is a DVD interview with
Mayall from 2002),
Mayall works with a lineup of
Keef Hartley on drums,
Blue Mitchell on trumpet,
Clifford Solomon on sax,
Freddy Robinson on guitar, and
Victor Gaskin on upright bass.
Red Holloway replaces
Solomon on sax for a second show in Frankfurt a year later in 1973. A 1980 show in Huntington Beach, CA, finds
James Quill Smith on guitar. Two 1982 concerts, one in Minneapolis and one in Chicago, feature
John McVie of
Fleetwood Mac on bass, while two shows in Italy later in the year, one in Rome and one in Lugo, sport a stripped-down lineup of
Mick Taylor,
Steve Thompson, and
Colin Allen. For all these personnel differences, the sound is remarkably consistent and the live recordings are quite balanced, although things red-line occasionally and now and then there are some obvious dropouts, but nothing too serious. Among the highlights are the over 12-minute
jazz blues "Got You on My Mind" and a scuffling
"No Holds Barred" from the 1972 Frankfurt show and an appropriately ragged
John Lee Hooker homage,
"John Lee Boogie," from the 1980 Huntington Beach performance.
~Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
Cart 0 items
Listen
