One of Mayall's finest returns on terrific sounding gold dis
Wayne Klein | My Little Blue Window, USA | 12/28/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE MONO GOLD AUDIO FIDELITY EDITION OF THE ALBUM
John Mayall's "Bluesbreakers" made after Eric Clapton left The Yardbirds remains a seminal blues album and features some of Clapton's most tasteful, compelling and powerful playing. This remaster focuses ONLY on the mono version of the album which previously appeared with the stereo in the deluxe edition (which doesn't sound quite as good as this version)
The best stereo version out there is the MFSL but the 1998 version supervised by Bill Levenson sounds quite good as well. If you already have the stereo version, then all you need is this edition to make your collection complete. What's different here is that in the stero mix Clapton's guitar often has to compete with Mayall's organ or other sonic details while in the mono mix Clapton's guitar is up front and presented with remarkable clarity and detail. I personally prefer the mono version for that reason alone but there are those that don't care for mono mixes and there are other alternatives on CD for those people.
This doesn't have any of the problems of some earlier AF releases such as peak limiting ("The Pretenders") applied after it was mastered, the cross over fades missing ("Heartbeat City"), etc. It's a marvelous job all around.
This was around the time that the "Clapton is God" tag started because of his blistering, brilliant playing and phrasing. "Bluesbreakers" provides Clapton with the perfect place to express his blues roots. The album also features one of Clapton's earliest lead vocals as well and although he clearly wasn't a confident singer yet, he handles it well. The only guitarist/vocalist that surpassed Clapton with Mayall was Peter Green who eventually went off and formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (not to be confused with the Buckingham/Nicks/McVie version that sold millions of records). Mick Taylor's tenure in Mayall's band came very close to both Clapton and Green's tenures as well.
Kevin Gray's remastering is marvelous. There's plenty of headroom as far as dynamics go and the mono mix here sounds warm with a great deal of sonic detail without sacrificing anything.
My only complaint (and it is a minor one)is that the single/b-sides that Clapton made with Mayall aren't included here as well (since they were originally in mono they would have made a perfect fit). I did email Audio Fidelity when they were going to release this suggesting they include the single/b-side(s) and/or also include the stereo version for completists but evidently because of the licensing agreement it would have increased the cost significantly and delayed the project.
Either way this is the definitive mono version of the album available on CD--it blows away the other edition with the mono remaster in every way imaginable except for NOT having the single/b-side(s) and/or liner notes on the recording of the album.
This edition available as a numbered limited edition (5000 copies) in a slipcase like the old DCC Gold discs.
Highly recommended."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1