Big Picture Big Sound

The Performance

John Mayall, known as "the father of British blues," has helped to launch the career of many a British musician, including the likes of Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Mick Fleetwood. His career highlight was in the late 1960's when he had his first commercial breakthrough with his band, The Bluesbreakers, with the album The Bluesbreakers and Eric Clapton.

This July 19, 2003 concert performance in Liverpool was in celebration of Mayall's 70th birthday and held as a fundraising event for the Unite for UNICEF series to raise awareness of child exploitation. The concert saw Mayall reunited with members from the classic 60's Bluesbreakers lineups, Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor, as well as veteran trombonist Chris Barber.

Drawing from his over fifty-year career, Mayall and company ran through sixteen blues numbers, both original and traditional, such as "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Oh, Pretty Woman." A particular highlight is the duet between Mayall and Clapton of "No Hurry," sounding like a mix between roadside and Delta blues.

This disc should be a treasure for anyone into the blues -- particularly Anglo-blues -- and fans of Mayall, Clapton, and Taylor.

The Picture

The 1.78:1 AVC/MPEG-4 encoding on this Blu-ray release is in 1080i and originally captured in HD. It offers solid black levels, reserved video noise, natural flesh tones and strong contrast levels. It has a great lifelike look to it with an absence of any obvious compression artifacts, but there are some occasional motion artifacts that creep in, probably due to the 1080i source. That is still not enough to detract from the high level of detail here, in both foreground and background shots. This is a strong looking presentation for sure.

The Sound

Apart from a little jaggedness in the high frequencies, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 options both sound wonderfully balanced and energetic on this release, with good dynamics and air around the instruments. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix adds some slight ambience and crowd noise to the surrounds and a bit deeper bass over the PCM, but both are quite pleasant. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix squeezes the soundstage a tad and emphasizes the roughness in the high frequencies even more. I'd recommend avoiding it if you can.

The Extras

It's always a welcome bonus when a concert disc provides extra performances, as is the case on this release. The three additional tracks include two by The Bluesbreakers on their own and one more with Mayall & The Bluesbreakers with Mick Taylor. There's also a fine, if brief, interview with Mayall discussing the history of The Bluesbreakers and the various musicians that have made stopovers in the band.

The extras provided on this release are:

• Bonus Performances (1.78:1; 1080i/60):
  • "Grits Ain't Groceries"
  • "Jacksboro Highway"
  • "California" w/ Mick Taylor
• Interview with John Mayall (1.78:1; 480i/60)

Final Thoughts

Seventy years on, and Mayall still gots da blues. This fine presentation from Eagle Rock will make a strong addition to any music lover's collection, being one of the better audio and video encodings they have released, with great music to boot.

Product Details

• Performers: John Mayall, Mick Taylor, Eric Clapton, Chris Barber
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
• Audio/Language: English LPCM 2.0, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Eagle Rock Ent
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: June 30, 2009
• List Price: $24.98
• Extras:
• Bonus Performances
• Interview with John Mayall