Meet John Mayer

2019, 25 minutes

This major retrospective shines a light on the fascinating life of renaissance composer John Mayer. Supported with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, PRSSV with a team of dedicated volunteers has digitised, interpreted and enhanced an archive documen

PRSSV Institute of Performing Arts and Heritage Published on 21 Dec 2018 PRSSV Institute launched the touring heritage exhibition, talks and concerts celebrating the life and legacy of ground-breaking composer, musician and Indo-Jazz pioneer, John Mayer (1929-2004). This major retrospective shines a light on the fascinating life of renaissance composer John Mayer. Supported with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, PRSSV with a team of dedicated volunteers has digitised, interpreted and enhanced an archive documenting what has evolved into ‘’Meet John Mayer’’. The launch of the exhibition took place in the presence of the family and with performances led by the bandmaster and son, Jonathan Mayer at the Watermans, London in October 2018. The exhibition with live performances and film screenings tours London in 2019. Highlights Formed in the 1960s, Indo Jazz Fusions was a “double quintet” of five Indian and five Jazz musicians playing together. The brainchild of Atlantic Records’ co-founder, Ahmet Ertegun, who was impressed by John Mayer’s Jazz piece ‘Nine for Bacon’. Ertegun introduced Mayer to Jamaican Jazz saxophonist, Joe Harriott, suggesting they work together on a new album blending Indian Classical music and Jazz music. ‘Indo-Jazz Fusions’ was released in 1966 and found immediate success in avant-garde circles. Notable musicians who performed with ‘Fusions’ include Larry Adler, John Williams, Tubby Hayes, Keith Emerson and dancer Surya Kumari. Mayer and Harriott continued to record and tour until Harriott’s death in 1973. In 1995, John Mayer reformed the Indo-Jazz project with his students from the Birmingham Conservatoire, releasing four albums, undertaking major tours and appearing in numerous festivals until John Mayer’s death in 2004.

---