Mayall and Simmonds prove their resilience

Mayall and Simmonds prove their resilience

appointed to the Office of the Order of the British Empire in 2005. –Courtesy photo

True survivors of the popular British electric blues scene of the 1960s, John Mayall and Kim Simmonds have taken different routes in keeping their careers moving along all these years.

Simmonds, frontman for Savoy Brown, is opening as a solo acoustic act for Mayall and his band’s current interisland tour.

The two live bicoastal lives as well — Simmonds resides in upstate New York and Mayall in his longtime adopted Southern California home.

Considering Mayall was appointed to the Office of the Order of the British Empire in 2005, his exalted reputation is well deserved. He’s had the “royalty” of English guitarists in his earlier bands, from Eric Clapton and Peter Green to Mick Taylor, the latter of whom is guesting on the 50th-anniversary tour with his former mates the Rolling Stones.

Speaking from his California home, Mayall — who’ll turn 80 in November — talks with the energy of someone much younger.

“The band and I try to cover as many eras of my music — there’s so much material,” he said. One particular signature song, the blues-jazzy “Room to Move,” harks back to the heyday of FM radio of 1969. “Yes, while I do feel there’s an obligation to play that, that’s not its lone criteria. It’s because it’s basically an improv exercise, so there’s something we can play around with in performance.”

Mayall has always been proud of the musicians and bands that he’s assembled over the decades. He’s had two notable guitarists dating back to the mid-1980s in Coco Montoya and Buddy Whittington, and his current band is filled with musicians of equal talent.

“Over the last five years, I’ve had with me Rocky Athas, Greg Rzab and Jay Davenport. Rocky’s from Texas, which has a strong blues tradition. Rocky himself has a great understanding of the blues, and came highly recommended by Buddy. Greg and Jay are both from Chicago, and Greg was a noted player with Buddy Guy.”

Mayall said he and the band average upward of a hundred shows a year, so there’s little downtime for this still-busy man.

“When I’m not playing music, it becomes family time. In fact, I just came back home from England last night after visiting my great-grandchildren.”

SIMMONDS, on the other hand, doesn’t keep to as busy a traveling schedule as his British blues counterpart.

He splits his time between his solo work and Savoy Brown. The band, in fact, will release a new studio album in January.

“Slowing down the touring has been perfect for me,” he said. “I obviously can’t keep the pace of the 1960s-’70s, where sometimes I could do three shows a night. For now it’s just a nice, natural cadence that I’ve embraced.”

Simmonds is playing mostly Savoy Brown songs during his Hawaii opening sets, including the band’s hit “Tell Mama,” as well as some old and new songs from his ongoing solo career.

“John and I have crossed paths many times in the past. Right from the beginning, his was the act, the Bluesbreakers, that I would go see in the early ’60s. Invariably, John blazed the trail for British blues, but myself and the band did our fair share for the scene. My brother and I opened a blues club in South London, Kilroy’s, in 1966.”

When asked what differences he saw in the music between the two bands, Simmonds said that although both had elements of their home country’s sensibilities, Savoy Brown tended to mix in more of an American Southern delta feel, while Mayall favored an urban Chicago sound.

When you see men like Mayall and Simmonds perform, it’s apparent the blues is still as viable as ever.

“When I do go on stage, I never think of my age,” Simmonds said. “In fact, I feel younger than I did before. Someone like John amazes me. I’ve seen his schedule, and he continues to just crank it out. As for me, it’s good to feel comfortable without having to kill yourself on the road,” he said with a laugh.

“The blues remain resilient,” Mayall said. “I look around and see these younger people, some of them teenage wonders, grasping the medium and making it their own. So I think the music is still healthy, and I look forward to what’s to come.”