Here in the Northeast this summer, we were going to be lucky enough to see the outstanding blues-rock guitarist Mick Taylor on a small club tour.

He rarely plays in the States but Taylor was scheduled to be at four venues in or near Connecticut: Toad’s Place in New Haven, Black-Eyed Sally’s in Hartford, the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Mass., or if you wanted to drive a little further, Misquamicut Beach in Westerly, R.I.

Unfortunately according to a release from his manager that is posted at Black-Eyed Sally’s, Taylor has been hospitalized with a blood clot in his chest and pleurisy. It appears what was suspected as dehydration is a bit more serious. He has canceled all of his U.S. gigs, but his manager is eager to reschedule in the fall after Taylor’s recovery, which is expected.

Taylor, of course, is best known for having replaced Brian Jones on second guitar in The Rolling Stones. He played with the superstar group in the late ’60s and early ’70s and was part of one of the Stones’ most creative and productive eras, which included the albums Let It Bleed, Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out (live), Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street. For me, probably their last truly creative and productive period.

After a brief stint in the quickly aborted Jack Bruce and Friends, a highly underated group that included jazz composer Carla Bley on keyboards and has only a BBC appearance and a live CD to its credit, Taylor has been a solo artist, mainly in the blues genre. His first solo album, though, from 1979, may be his best and it mixed blues with elements of fusion very successfully. He also has recorded several collaborations with Carla Olson, including a live set, also worth checking out. 

My favorite period of Taylor’s work, other than that first solo record, is when he played on four of John Mayall’s albums — replacing Peter Green who had replaced Eric Clapton — probably because I got a chance to see him up close and personal during that time. The show was in January of 1968 when Mayall and his Bluesbreakers played for nearly two weeks at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York City, around the time or just before the release of Bare Wires.

Taylor was only 18 when he joined the Bluesbreakers in 1967. There’s a great track with three excerpts of his featured solos interspersed with interviews talking about his precocious playing on Diary Of A Band Volume 1 by the Bluesbreakers. So when I saw him play, he was only 19.

One thing I’ll never forget about that show is that we landed the best seats we had ever scored at the Au Go Go. As I’ve mentioned before, the Au Go Go was a below-street level club, one long, narrow room lit like a cave. The stage was about half-way down the left side of the room with tables on each side. The only seats directly in front of the stage were at a single row of tables up against the opposite wall. So if you sat there, you were literally right on top of the stage. That’s where we were, dead center. And we were directly in front of Taylor with Mayall behind a Hammond B-3 just off to the left of Taylor.

I recall much of the material the band played but not necessarily the order. They opened with Oh Pretty Woman, the Albert King classic, on which Taylor plays a wonderful tribute style solo. They also played Start Walking from the Bare Wires suite, with a Taylor tour de force if brief solo, a few tunes from Side 2 of Bare Wires, including I’m A Stranger, the single Suspicions, I Can’t Quit You Babe, and an instrumental that just knocked me out aptly titled Knockers Step Forward that featured an outrageously infectious horn line and another brilliant solo by Taylor. I didn’t hear that tune again or know its name until it appeared on Mayall’s Thru The Years many years later.

This was essentially the Bare Wires band with Dick Heckstall-Smith on sax, playing a few of his signature solos simultaneously on tenor and soprano, and Chris Mercer, tenor sax. Keef Hartley, who later had his own group that played at Woodstock, was the drummer.

Of course, what I remember most was watching Taylor closely as he played his parts and solos on a cherry sunburst Les Paul. He looked so young. His playing was so far ahead of his years. Truly an inspiring performance by him and Mayall’s band.

Here’s hoping Taylor has a quick recovery and we get to see him fulfill all those shows this fall.