 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(July 2014) |
Johnny Almond (20 July 1946 [1] – 18 November 2009) [2] was a British saxophonist, who is best known for his recordings with the Alan Price Set, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall and Mark-Almond.
Johnny Almond was born in Enfield, Middlesex, England. [1] He played in Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and the Alan Price Set. Among others he worked as a session musician with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Chicken Shack and Fleetwood Mac.
In 1969, he had founded Johnny Almond's Music Machine and had recorded two solo albums, Patent Pending and Hollywood Blues. [1] On Patent Pending, Almond is accompanied by Geoff Condon, Alan White, Jimmy Crawford, Steve Hammond, Roger Sutton and Johnny Wiggins. [3] On Hollywood Blues he jammed with Curtis Amy, Hadley Caliman, Joe Harris, Charles Kynard, Ray Neapolitan, Joe Pass, Earl Palmer and Vi Redd.
In the same year he joined John Mayall (post-Bluesbreakers), with whom he toured and recorded The Turning Point (1969) and Empty Rooms (1969). [1] There he met Jon Mark, with whom he formed Mark-Almond. [1]
Mark-Almond's first two albums, Mark-Almond (1971) and Mark-Almond II (1972), were recorded for Bob Krasnow's Blue Thumb label, and were noted for their embossed envelope-style album covers. For the first album, "The Ghetto" received many plaudits and from the second "One Way Sunday" was a hit for them in the United States and received radio airplay on album-oriented rock stations in Boston, Massachusetts in 1970. The group then recorded two albums for Columbia Records, Rising (1972) and the live album Mark-Almond 73 (1973), by which time the group's members had grown to seven.
"What Am I Living For" from Mark-Almond 73 gained the group the most U.S. radio airplay they would get, but nevertheless they disbanded later that year.
Billy Joel announces "Johnny Almond on sax," after an early live performance of "New York State of Mind", including a saxophone solo, on his album Live at The Great American Music Hall (1975). [4]
Notable musicians who have recorded or toured with Mark-Almond include drummer Dannie Richmond, drummer Billy Cobham, violinist Greg Bloch, keyboardist Tommy Eyre and bassist Roger Sutton. Eyre and Sutton later teamed in Riff Raff. A&M Records signed the duo in 1978 and released Other Peoples Rooms, but the record did not sell as well as earlier releases. Mark-Almond disbanded again in the mid 1980s, after releasing two albums, Tuesday in New York (1980) and a live offering The Last & Live (1981). In 1996, Mark-Almond reunited again for a CD release, Night Music, which featured keyboardist Mike Nock and others.
Almond lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. He occasionally surprised local bar owners, arriving with his saxophone to jam, some of which was recorded, including a rendition of "Stormy Monday".
He died on 18 November 2009 from cancer, aged 63 in Hayward, California, United States. [2]
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers were an English blues rock band led by multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter John Mayall. The band has been influential as an incubator for British rock and blues musicians. Many of the best known bands to come out of Britain in the 1960s and 1970s had members that came through the Bluesbreakers at one time, forming the foundation of British blues music that is still played heavily on classic rock radio. Among those with a tenure in the Bluesbreakers are guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, bassists John McVie, Jack Bruce and Tony Reeves, drummers Hughie Flint, Aynsley Dunbar, Mick Fleetwood and Jon Hiseman, and numerous others.
John Brumwell Mayall was an English blues and rock musician, songwriter and producer. In the 1960s, he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians. A singer, guitarist, harmonica player, and keyboardist, he had a career that spanned nearly seven decades, remaining an active musician until his death aged 90. Mayall has often been referred to as the "godfather of the British blues", and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the musical influence category in 2024.
Peter Allen Greenbaum, known professionally as Peter Green, was an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Green founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967 after a stint in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and quickly established the new band as a popular live act in addition to a successful recording act, before departing in 1970. Green's songs, such as "Albatross", "Black Magic Woman", "Oh Well", "The Green Manalishi " and "Man of the World", appeared on singles charts, and several have been adapted by a variety of musicians.
John Graham McVie is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of drummer Mick Fleetwood, was the source for the band's name.
Fleetwood Mac, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, is the debut studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in February 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties. It is the only album by the band without any involvement of keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie.
Don Francis Bowman "Sugarcane" Harris was an American blues and rock and roll violinist and guitarist. He is considered a pioneer in the amplification of the violin.
Savoy Brown were a British blues rock band formed in Battersea, southwest London, in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they promoted their albums with non-stop touring. Founder, guitarist and primary songwriter Kim Simmonds was the sole constant member of the band from its formation in 1965 until his death in 2022.
Blues Breakers, colloquially known as The Beano Album, is the debut studio album by the English blues rock band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, originally credited to John Mayall with Eric Clapton. Produced by Mike Vernon and released in 1966 by Decca Records (UK) and London Records (US), it pioneered a guitar-dominated blues-rock sound.
Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb, Andy Silvester, and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine Perfect in 1967. Chicken Shack has performed with various line-ups, Stan Webb being the only constant member.
Mark–Almond was a jazz-influenced English pop group of the 1970s and early 1980s, sometimes also called The Mark-Almond Band. The core members were Jon Mark, who sang lead and played guitar, percussion, and harmonica, and Johnny Almond, who played saxophone, flute and bass flute and sang back-up. Various other musicians recorded and toured with the duo at various times, notably including drummer Dannie Richmond, a longtime associate of jazz bassist Charles Mingus.
Michael William Hugh Vernon is an English music executive studio owner, and record producer from Harrow, Middlesex. He produced albums for British blues artists and groups in the 1960s, working with the Bluesbreakers, David Bowie, Duster Bennett, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Climax Blues Band, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, John Mayall, Christine McVie and Ten Years After amongst others.
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.
Decca Studios was a recording facility at 165 Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, North London, England, controlled by Decca Records from 1937 to 1980.
Blue Horizon Records was a British blues independent record label, founded by Mike Vernon and Neil Slaven in 1965, as an adjunct to their fanzine, R&B Monthly, and was the foremost label at the time of the British blues boom in the mid to late 1960s.
This is a discography for Peter Green, the founder and original lead guitarist of Fleetwood Mac in the late 1960s. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he had a brief solo career, before further success in the late 1990s with the Peter Green Splinter Group.
O.K. Ken? is the second studio album by the blues band Chicken Shack, released in February 1969. O.K Ken? reached number 9 in the UK Albums Chart, three places higher than its predecessor, 40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve.
John Michael Burchell, known professionally as Jon Mark, was an English singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for his recordings with Marianne Faithfull, Sweet Thursday, John Mayall and Mark-Almond. Mark, who received a Grammy in 2004, lived in Rotorua, New Zealand.
The discography of English blues rock musician John Mayall, including the band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, consists of 35 studio albums, 34 live albums, 24 compilation albums, four extended plays (EPs), 44 singles and four video albums. Mayall's 38th studio album was released in 2022.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
