John Mayall has helped launch the careers of some of rock’s most legendary musicians, including Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones’ Mick Taylor, Jack Bruce of Cream, and Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac.

While those musicians have become mega-stars, Mayall has continued his musical career for some 50 years with a fairly low profile.

So low, in fact, that this year, at the age of 78, he’s handling all his own tour publicity. He arranges the interviews himself, then he gives the interviews.

“Right now, I don’t have anybody to do that, so I’ll do it myself,” said Mayall, from his home in Los Angeles. “I just feel blessed to have the freedom musicianship has given me. I take care of what I have to take care of.

“I love what I do, and I’ll do whatever I have to do to share it.”

Mayall will bring his blues-rock band to Maine on Sunday, when he plays a show at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit. He calls his current band — Rocky Athas on guitar, Jay Davenport on drums and Greg Rzab on bass — the best he’s ever had.

That’s high praise indeed from a man who has had Clapton and three founding members of Fleetwood Mac in his band, not to mention Coco Montoya, Aynsley Dunbar, Walter Trout and a dozen or so other top-notch musicians.

“I think this band is the best I’ve had, especially at exploring the possibilities of the music,” said Mayall. “It doesn’t matter what we play; the tunes are just the hangers we put the music on.”

So if you go to Sunday’s show, be ready for a heavy dose of improvisation. And with 57 albums’ worth of material to work from, Mayall has a very deep musical pond from which to fish.

Mayall found his current band through mutual friends, and by watching other people’s bands. He knew of Rzab because of his time playing with Buddy Guy, for instance, and he found Athas through a previous member of his band, Buddy Whittington.

“I need to find people I have a great rapport with,” he said. “That’s important to me.”

Mayall was born in the English countryside not far from the industrial city of Manchester. His father was a fan of American blues, and his record collection included 78s by early blues guitar legends such as Leadbelly, Lonnie Johnson and Brownie McGhee.

Mayall’s family were also fans of the boogie-woogie style, so he began playing piano at 14 while attending an arts school. Thus began a career of musical dexterity. Mayall is proficient on guitar, piano, keyboards, harmonica and a host of other instruments.

As a young man, he worked as an artist for a department store, then served in the British Army’s Royal Engineers as an office clerk in England and Korea. He played music the entire time, but says he couldn’t find many places who wanted his style of amplified-guitar blues. It wasn’t until the early 1960s, when Mayall was 30, that he started playing regularly in London and started gaining audiences for his music.

It was around this time that he formed the first version of his signature band, The Bluesbreakers. When Eric Clapton left The Yardbirds in 1965 due to their increasing pop mentality, he turned to Mayall for a more blues-based approach. Their one and only album together, “Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton” (1966), is considered one of the greatest albums of all time.

But Clapton soon left to form Cream, taking bass player Jack Bruce with him. It was the first in a long line of musicians nurtured by Mayall who would leave for wildly successful careers elsewhere.

Instead of being resentful, Mayall finds it “gratifying” that Clapton and many other great musicians played in his band. “I guess it’s a testament to my good taste in music,” he said.

Mayall doesn’t keep in touch very much with his former bandmates. He did play a gig with Clapton and Taylor in 2003, on the occasion of Mayall’s 70th birthday, but that was arranged by record labels.

“Eric showed up on the afternoon of the show, so there were no rehearsals. It was great fun,” said Mayall. “But as far as getting in touch with him again, I wouldn’t know where to find Eric. I don’t think his number is listed.”

In 2001, on the anniversary of his 40th year in music, Mayall put out an album called “Along for the Ride,” which included appearances by Gary Moore, Jonny Lang, Steve Cropper, Steve Miller, Otis Rush, Billy Gibbons, Chris Rea and others. It was a testament to Mayall’s reputation that, while not as commercially successful as his proteges, his influence on rock and post-war blues is incalculable.

Mayall says he has no plans to retire or slow down, and will play music as long as he can. When he’s not playing music — or arranging for his own tour publicity — he likes to work with his hands.

“We just moved, and we built a new house, so I just finished building a rock fireplace,” he said. “I like to keep moving.”

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com