John Mayall - A Banquet In Blues (1978)




Though Mayall's 70's material majorly suffers next to his 60's output, "A banquet in blues" is one of his better 70's outings and probably the best from Mayall's Rick Vito days. The brisk opening shouter "Sunshine" features a bright and tasty Blue Mitchell trumpet solo and also has John McVie on bass, effective in the up stairs tumbler sound. Rick here is on vocals (presumably in with the shouting verse sections) and on rhythm guitar (which you can hear thinly in the background of the grumble). In fact, Rick is on every track on the album in one way or another except one, which is the horn & piano led bland mid temp track "Lady" so it's probably just as well he's not on that one. "You can't put me down" is a fast shuffle with a slight disco feel, Rick plays lead guitar and also does (background?) vocals on this one. Rick also lends vocals to the album's best track, the closing "Fantasyland", at 14 minutes, the beginning and end are flute led with more chanting verses (so I'd imagine he's singing in those parts) and then the middle section is suspenseful swirling, fiddle scratching and guitar strumming meanderings which also includes a quiet but effective bass solo by one time Peter Green sidekick Alex Dimochowski. Rick plays rhythm guitar on the dragging skipper "I got somebody" (which mainly features a bass/drums chug) and funk laden track "Turn me loose" (which also has disco possibilities but that side is not as evident on the cupped horn sections which are nicely placed on this one) and Vito also is listed as guitar for the dated sounding but nonetheless enjoyable "Seven days too long" (which is almost pop/rock as the blues hides behind that shield here) and the hard to take serious "Table top girl" (a somewhat pulsing track). It's doubtful anyone would ever recommend you get any 70's Mayall releases before anything else he's done but when the time comes when you do wish to listen to some, this would probably be your best bet from the pack.
Taken From and All Thanxs To Fleetwod Mac.Net

1 Sunshine 5:31
2 You Can't Put Me Down 3:24
3 I Got Somebody 4:02
4 Turn Me Loose 2:42
5 Seven Days Too Long 5:16
6 Table Top Girl 3:57
7 Lady 3:38
8 Fantasyland 14:13

 Flac 

Not MY Upload!
All Thanxs To The Original Uploader