Harvey Mandel - ...and on guitar (2014)

Harvey Mandel was born on 11 March 1945 in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He began playing guitar while in his early teens and found his inspiration in the sound of the Ventures, but once he had the chance to hear musicians like Buddy Guy in the small blues clubs of Chicago's West and South sides a whole new world of music opened up to him. He learned from and performed with such greats as Guy, Albert King, Muddy Waters, and Otis Rush, and he got his nickname "The Snake" from master blues harp player Charlie Musselwhite, who admired the way Mandel's left hand would effortlessly snake up and down the guitar neck. His solo career began in the late '60s, after he was signed to Philips Records, a label distributed by Mercury Records, and his first album was 1968's 'Cristo Redentor', which was well-received on the then-growing underground radio scene in California. He followed this with 'Righteous' in 1969 and 'Games Guitars Play' in 1970, before moving to the Janus Records label. On the night that Henry Vestine quit Canned Heat in July 1969, Mandel was in the band's dressing room at the Fillmore West, and both he and Mike Bloomfield joined them to help out on their two sets. Following this, both Bloomfield and Mandel were offered Vestine's spot in the band, and Mandel accepted, with his third performance with the band being the Woodstock Festival in 1969. He stayed with Canned Heat for a year, touring and recording material which appeared on three albums, and during this period, with Canned Heat bandmates Larry Taylor and Fito de la Parra, he also contributed to the 'Music From Free Creek' super session project. With Canned Heat bassist Larry Taylor, Mandel joined John Mayall's band for a couple of years, and after a brief tour with Mayall in Europe in 1972, he recorded 'The Snake', and then 'Shangrenade' in 1973 and 'Feel The Sound Of Harvey Mandel' in 1974, all of which were released on Janus Records. When Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor left the band in December 1974, Mandel was given an audition as his replacement, and although he didn't get the gig, he did record two tracks with the Stones for their 1976 album 'Black And Blue', providing the lead guitar solo on 'Hot Stuff'. Mandel's session work is a short who's-who of blues and roots-rock greats, including playing with The Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Charlie Musselwhite, Barry Goldberg, Jimmy Witherspoon, Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Dewey Terry, Freddy Roulette, Bobby Keys, and eventually, even his heroes the Ventures. In the early '90s, Mandel moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he recorded a series of excellent albums for the Chicago-based Western Front Entertainment label, as well as permanently rejoining Canned Heat in 2010. He continues to write and record to this day, sometimes in collaboration with his son Eric Mandel as lead vocalist, and if you need proof that he's lost none of his skill in recent years then just listen to his work on 'Wasabi' from 1996.

Track listing

Disc One
01 Cha Cha The Blues (from 'Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's  

                                                                                                         South Side Band' 1967) 
02 Spirit Of Trane (from '2 Jews Blues' by Barry Goldberg 1969)
03 Sisters And Brothers (from 'Mighty Grahame Bond' by Grahame Bond 1969)
04 Going Down Slow (from 'The Blues Singer' by Jimmy Witherspoon 1969)
05 I Feel A Lot (from 'Raymond Louis Kennedy' by Raymond Louis Kennedy 1970) 
06 Television Eye (from 'Back To The Roots' by John Mayall 1971)
07 Do It Yourself (from 'Choice Cuts' by Pure Food & Drug Act 1972)
08 The Buzzard's Cousin (from 'Fiddler On The Rock' by Don "Sugarcane" Harris 1972)

Disc Two
01 Suit For The Cat (from 'Chief' by Dewey Terry 1973)
02 Earl's Shuffle (from 'Music From Free Creek' by Various Artists 1973)
03 Which Witch Is Which (from 'Reel To Real' by Love 1974)
04 Memory Motel (from 'Black And Blue' by The Rolling Stones 1976)
05 You Make It Hard (from 'Let's All Get Naked' by Acme Thunder 1978)
06 Zeke And The Rat (from 'Pryvet Blewz' by Denis Farley 1988)
07 Snake Bite (from 'Guitar Speak II' by Various Artists 1990)
08 Wasabi (from 'Standing In Stereo' by Geno White 1996)
09 Shake The Devil Down (from 'Primitive Son' by Eli Cook 2014)

John Mayall - Double Trouble (1968)

 While I was helping Paul over at Albums That Should Exist with some of his album covers I found a great little programme that can colourise old black and white photos, and you'll see an astounding result in one of his future posts. The only B&W photo that I can remember having to use was for this album, so here is a revamped version of it if you want to replace the old one in your download. 

John Mayall - I'm Your Witchdoctor (1966)

John Mayall is rightly considered to be the godfather of British blues, with his Bluesbreakers being the starting point for a myriad of artists who later went on to find fame with other bands. He was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1933, and from an early age he was drawn to the sounds of American blues players such as Lead Belly, Albert Ammons, Pinetop Smith and Eddie Lang. Following a three year stint in Korea for national service, he came back to England and enrolled at Manchester College of Art, playing with semi-professional bands in his spare time. In 1962 Mayall became a member of the Blues Syndicate, which included rhythm guitarist Ray Cummings and drummer Hughie Flint, whom Mayall already knew, and while playing at the 'Twisted Wheel' cellar club in central Manchester, Alexis Korner persuaded him to opt for a full-time musical career and move to London. In 1963 the renamed Bluesbreakers started playing at the Marquee Club, and by the following Spring Mayall had obtained his first recording date with producer Ian Samwell. The band, with Martin Hart at the drums, recorded two tracks, 'Crawling Up a Hill' and 'Mr. James', which were issued as his first single under the Bluesbreakers name. Shortly afterwards, Hughie Flint replaced Hart and Roger Dean took over the guitar from Bernie Watson, and this line-up backed John Lee Hooker on his British tour in 1964. A recording contract with Decca soon followed, and a live performance of the band was recorded at the Klooks Kleek, as well as a studio-recorded single, 'Crocodile Walk', although neither met with any success when released, and the band were dropped from the label. In April 1965 former Yardbirds guitarist Eric Clapton replaced Roger Dean and Mayall's career entered a decisive phase. 
The addition of Clapton to the ranks began to attract considerable attention, and by the Summer the band had cut a couple tracks for a single, 'I'm Your Witchdoctor' and 'Telephone Blues'. In August, however, Clapton left for a jaunt to Greece with a bunch of relative musical amateurs, and after some unsuccessful attempts to find a new guitarist, Peter Green was announced as his replacement. At the same time John McVie was dismissed, and during the next few months Jack Bruce, from the Graham Bond Organisation, played bass. In November 1965 Clapton returned, and Green departed as Mayall had guaranteed Clapton his spot back in the Bluesbreakers whenever he decided to return. McVie was also allowed back, and Bruce left to join Manfred Mann, but not before a November live date by the Mayall-Clapton-Bruce-Flint line-up was recorded on Mayall's two-track tape recorder at London's Flamingo Club. Mayall and Clapton cut a couple of tracks without the others, and the 'Lonely Years'/'Bernard Jenkins' single was released under the name of John Mayall and Eric Clapton on Mike Vernon's Purdah Records label. In April 1966 the Bluesbreakers returned to Decca Studios to record a second LP with producer Vernon, and 'Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton' was released in the UK on 22 July 1966, announcing Mayall's commercial breakthrough, and subsequently gaining classic status. The first of three posts collects all of the songs mentioned here, as none of them ever made it to an album, including a scorching take of 'They Call It Stormy Monday' from the Flamingo Club tape, as well as a live BBC recording and a previously unreleased track. 

Track listing

01 Crawling Up A Hill (single 1964)
02 Mr James (b-side of 'Crawling Up A Hill')  
03 Crocodile Walk (single 1965) 
04 Blues City Shakedown (b-side of 'Crocodile Walk') 
05 I'm Your Witchdoctor (single 1965)   
06 Telephone Blues (b-side of 'I'm Your Witchdoctor')   
07 My Baby Is Sweeter (previously unreleased 1965)
08 Bye Bye Bird (live at the BBC 1965) 
09 Looking Back (single 1966) 
10 So Many Roads (b-side of 'Looking Back') 
11 Lonely Years (single 1966)   
12 Bernard Jenkins (b-side of 'Lonely Years) 
13 They Call It Stormy Monday (live at the Flamingo Club 1966)

John Mayall - Alabama Blues (1968)

Following the departure of Peter Green, Mayall once again needed a new guitarist, and his first choice was 18-year-old David O'List, guitarist from the Attack. O'List declined, however, and went on to form The Nice with organist Keith Emerson, so Mayall placed a 'musicians wanted' ad in Melody Maker and also conducted his own search, and eventually found three other potential guitarists for his Bluesbreakers, Terry Edmonds, John Moorshead (later to join The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation), and 18-year-old Mick Taylor. The latter made the band quickly, but Mayall also decided to hire Edmonds as a rhythm guitarist for a few days. In the meantime, he assembled a studio album to showcase his own abilities, with former Artwoods drummer Keef Hartley drumming on half the tracks, and everything else being played by Mayall himself, with 'The Blues Alone' coming out in 1967. 
A six-piece line-up consisting of Mayall, Mick Taylor as lead guitarist, John McVie still on bass, Hughie Flint or Hartley on drums, and Rip Kant and Chris Mercer on saxophones, recorded the album 'Crusade' in 1967, and following it's release the band spent most of the year touring abroad, with Mayall taping the shows on his portable recorder. At the end of the tour, he had over sixty hours of tapes, which he edited into an album in two volumes: 'Diary Of A Band Vol 1' and 'Diary Of A Band Vol 2', released in February 1968. Meanwhile, a few line-up changes had occurred: McVie had departed for Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, and was replaced by Paul Williams, who soon quit to join Alan Price and was himself replaced by Keith Tillman, with Dick Heckstall-Smith taking over the saxophone spot. Following a US tour, there were more line-up changes, starting with the troublesome bass position. First Mayall replaced bassist Tillman with 15-year-old Andy Fraser, but within six weeks Fraser left to join Free and was replaced by Tony Reeves, previously a member of the New Jazz Orchestra. Hartley was required to leave, and he was replaced by New Jazz Orchestra drummer Jon Hiseman, and Henry Lowther, who played violin and cornet, joined in February 1968. 
Two months later this line-up of The Bluesbreakers recorded 'Bare Wires', before Hiseman, Reeves, and Heckstall-Smith moved on to form Colosseum. Mayall managed to retain Mick Taylor and added drummer Colin Allen bassist Stephen Thompson, and in 1968 the new quartet recorded the superb 'Blues From Laurel Canyon'. The final post of this series collects the remaining tracks from 'Raw Blues', some previously unreleased tracks featuring Peter Green, Taylor's first single with the band 'Suspicions', and topped off with two great unreleased tracks from the 'Bare Wires' sessions. Despite the unbelievably turbulent history of the Bluesbreakers, I hope that these posts show that in their many incarnations they produced some of the best British blues ever recorded. 

Track listing

01 Evil Woman Blues (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)   
02 Missing You (previously unreleased 1967)   
03 Greeny (previously unreleased 1967)  
04 Milkman Strut (from 'Raw Blues' 1967) 
05 Suspicions (Part One) (single 1967)    
06 Suspicions (Part Two) (b-side of 'Suspicions (Part One)')  
07 Mama Talk To Your Daughter (previously unreleased 1967)  
08 Alabama Blues (previously unreleased 1967) 
09 Your Funeral And My Trial (previously unreleased 1967)    
10 Jenny (single 1968) 
11 Picture On The Wall (b-side of 'Jenny')  
12 Knockers Step Forward (previously unreleased 1968)   
13 Hide And Seek (previously unreleased 1968)    

John Mayall - Double Trouble (1968)

While 'Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton' was the album which finally put John Mayall on the map, it was to be a short-lived success, as while the album was still in the charts, it was revealed in the music press that Clapton had teamed up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker to form Cream, which meant that he would have to leave Mayall's band. This was something of an embarrassment to Clapton, who had not said anything about this to Mayall, and his last gig with The Blues Breakers was in July 1966 in Bexley, south-east of London, and Cream played a warm-up gig just a couple of weeks later. Mayall now needed to find a new guitarist, but luckily for him he succeeded in persuading Peter Green to return to the fold. During the following year, with Green on guitar and using various other sidemen, some 40 tracks were recorded, with the album 'A Hard Road' being released in February 1967. It's another British blues classic, showing that Green was the perfect replacement for Clapton, and a few months later the band released an EP recorded with American blues harpist Paul Butterfield. Also in 1967 the Ace Of Clubs label released a collection of blues tracks called 'Raw Blues', including otherwise unavailable recordings from Mayall, Clapton, Green and Steve Anglo, otherwise known as Stevie Winwood, alongside songs from Otis Spann, Champion Jack Dupree, and Curtis Jones. Soon after the release of 'A Hard Road' Peter Green  gave notice that he was starting his own band with Mick Fleetwood, and later bassist John McVie, who stayed with Mayall for a while after Green left, before teaming up with his former bandmate in Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac. This second volume of rarities features some of Mayall's contributions to 'Raw Blues', the complete Butterfield EP, and a few stand-alone singles and their b-sides. 

Track listing

01 Sitting In The Rain (single 1967) 
02 Out Of Reach (b-side of 'Sitting In The Rain')
03 Curly (single 1967) 
04 Rubber Duck (b-side of 'Curly') 
05 Please Don't Tell (previously unreleased 1967) 
06 It Hurts Me Too (single 1967) 
07 Double Trouble (b-side of 'It Hurts Me Too') 
08 All My Life (single 1967, with Paul Butterfield))
09 Ridin´ On The L. And N. (b-side of 'All My Life')
10 Little By Little (b-side of 'All My Life')
11 Eagle Eye (b-side of 'All My Life')
12 Burn Out Your Blind Eyes (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)
12 Long Night (from 'Raw Blues' 1967)