Johnny Almond (20 July 1946 – 18 November 2009) was a British saxophonist, who is best known for his recordings with the Alan Price Set,

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

John Mayall John Brumwell Mayall (29 November 1933 – 22 July 2024) was an English blues and Rock music, rock musician, songwriter and producer. In the 1960s, he formed John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band that has counted among its members some of ...

and

Mark-Almond 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, wh ...

Biography

Johnny Almond was born in Enfield, Middlesex, England. He played in Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and the Alan Price Set. Among others he worked as a session musician with

's Bluesbreakers,

Chicken Shack Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb (guitarist), Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), Andy Silvester (bass guitar), and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine McVie, Christine Perfect (later ...

and

. In 1969, he had founded Johnny Almond's Music Machine and had recorded two solo albums, ''Patent Pending'' and ''Hollywood Blues''. On ''Patent Pending'', Almond is accompanied by Geoff Condon, Alan White, Jimmy Crawford, Steve Hammond, Roger Sutton and Johnny Wiggins. On ''Hollywood Blues'' he jammed with

Curtis Amy Curtis Edward Amy (October 11, 1927 – June 5, 2002) was an American jazz saxophonist. Biography Amy was born in Houston, Texas, United States. He learned how to play clarinet before joining the Army, and during his time in service, picked up t ...

, Hadley Caliman, Joe Harris,

Charles Kynard Charles Kynard (20 February 1933 – 8 July 1979) was an American soul jazz/acid jazz organist born in St. Louis, Missouri. Kynard first played piano then switched to organ and led a trio in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City including Tex J ...

, Ray Neapolitan,

Joe Pass Joe Pass (born Joseph Anthony Jacobi Passalacqua; January 13, 1929 – May 23, 1994) was an American jazz guitarist. Although Pass recorded and performed live with pianist Oscar Peterson, composer Duke Ellington, and vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, he ...

, Earl Palmer and Vi Redd. In the same year he joined

(post-Bluesbreakers), with whom he toured and recorded '' The Turning Point'' (1969) and '' Empty Rooms'' (1969). There he met Jon Mark, with whom he formed

. 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 cover An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released album, studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to: * the printed paperboard covers typically used to package: ** sets of a ...

s. 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 Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts in 1970. The group then recorded two albums for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

, ''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 Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

they would get, but nevertheless they disbanded later that year.

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Piano Man" after his Signature song, signature 1973 song Piano Man (song), of the same name, Joel has ha ...

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). Notable musicians who have recorded or toured with Mark-Almond include drummer Dannie Richmond, drummer

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was inducted into the '' Mode ...

, violinist Greg Bloch, keyboardist

Tommy Eyre Tommy Eyre (5 June 1949 – 23 May 2001) was an English session keyboardist from Sheffield, England, who appeared on records by Joe Cocker, John Martyn, Gary Moore, Michael Schenker, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Greg Lake, B.B. King, Jo ...

and bassist Roger Sutton. Eyre and Sutton later teamed in Riff Raff.

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

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 Michael Anthony Nock (born 27 September 1940) is a New Zealand jazz pianist, who lives and works in Australia. Biography Nock was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, but spent his childhood in Ngāruawāhia. Nock began studying piano at 11. H ...

and others. Almond lived in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. 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 Hayward is a city located in Alameda County, California, United States, in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area, and the third largest in ...

, United States.

Discography

Session musician

's '' Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton'' (1966) * John Mayall's Blues Breakers: '' A Hard Road'' (1967) *

: ''

40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve ''40 Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve'' is the debut studio album by the blues band Chicken Shack, released in 1968. The album reached number 12 in the UK Albums Chart. This album has three Freddy King covers; "Lonesome Whistle Blu ...

'' (1968) *

: '' Mr. Wonderful'' (1968) *

: '' O.K. Ken?'' (1969) * John Mayall: '' Looking Back'' (1969) *

Martha Veléz Martha Veléz (born in New York City on August 25, 1945) is an American singer and actress of Puerto Rican descent. Biography Veléz started singing at age five and won an opera scholarship at age 12, as a mezzo-soprano. She studied for three y ...

: ''Fiends and Angels'' (1969) * John Mayall: '' The Turning Point'' (1969) * John Mayall: '' Empty Rooms'' (1970) *

Keef Hartley Keith "Keef" Hartley (8 April 1944 – 26 November 2011)
was an English drummer and bandleader. He fronted his own b ...

Band: '' Overdog'' (1971) * John Mayall: ''

Back to the Roots (John_Mayall_album) ''Back to the Roots'' is a 1971 double album by John Mayall released on Polydor. Recording sessions took place both in California and London where Mayall invited some former members of his band, notably guitarists Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor. ...

'' (1971)

Solo work

* ''Patent Pending'' (1969) * ''Hollywood Blues'' (1970)

Band member

: ''The Turning Point'' (1969) *

: ''Empty Rooms'' (1969)

Mark-Almond

* ''Mark-Almond'' (1971) * ''Mark-Almond II'' (1972) * ''Rising'' (1972) * ''73'' (1973) * ''To the Heart'' (1976) * ''Other Peoples Rooms'' (1978) * ''Tuesday in New York'' (1980) * ''Last & Live'' (1981) * ''Night Music'' (1996)

References

External links

* Andrew Gilbert
Johnny Almond, unknown musician legend, plays Santa Cruz.

Obituary John Almond.
* Rolling Stone Encyclopedia
Mark-Almond Band
* allmusic-Biografie
Mark-Almond.
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Almond, Johnny 1946 births 2009 deaths Blues revival musicians British blues rock musicians British blues (genre) musicians English blues musicians British rhythm and blues boom musicians John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers members