Peter's music has been heard on hundreds of radio stations and has been on SiriusXM rotation for over a decade. As a multi-award winning artist, Peter's music has also topped Billboard's Classical and Crossover charts.
For Captain Beefheart, a maverick-artist-musician, who was not just a complicated man but highly demanding and by most accounts very difficult to deal with. It was appropriate that Beefheart's Magic Band was to prominently feature a bassist as accomplished, bold and adventurous as Mark Boston, a.k.a Rockette Morton.
Born on July 14, 1949, Mark began life in the small town of Salem, Illinois before his family moved out to Lancaster, California when he was 13. With a bassist and steel player for a father, Mark gained a great appreciation for country and bluegrass along with the R&B and rock’n’roll that was on the rise. Within a year of the Boston clan moving out to Lancaster, Mark befriended a young guitarist by the name of Bill Harkleroad.
At a time when the bass guitar was seen as the dummy’s instrument, Mark left quite an impression on Bill with his talent and equipment, leading to the two joining forces to form BC And The Cavemen. With Mark’s mother sewing some outfits for them, the band developed a decent reputation, and the two would also play in a band with Jeff Cotton and John French known as Blues In A Bottle. And then a local hero came calling. Or perhaps screaming and howling!
In that same Lancaster scene, Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band were making a big splash as a top flight blues rock outfit, with 'Safe As Milk' having made a strong impression and 'Strictly Personal' being a strong record as well. But even with a sound that was speaking to people, one that perhaps would have been a more pragmatic one as far as a career goes, Don Van Vliet just wasn’t meant for conventional norms.
The Captain had all these ideas, ideas far too out for many, including early members. He needed new musicians, younger and more impressionable ones that wouldn’t object to his ideas. Already having John and Jeff in the band, now 'Drumbo' and Antennae Jimmy Semens, he then recruited Bill, dubbed Zoot Horn Rollo. And on bass, he found Mark Boston, who took the name Rockette Morton due to his love of outer space. And the classic Magic Band was born.
Trout Mask Replica (TMR) wasn’t an easy album to make. Yet even with all the bizarre ideas and the difficulty in preparing those ideas into music, Mark was a total champ through it all. The Beefheart sound is one of great dichotomy, and Mark can capture all of it. He’s so tight and precise, and yet there’s this raw grit and dirt. He’s highly intelligent and sophisticated in his playing, and yet there remains this childlike sense of wonder and curiosity.
He takes after all the great traditional American music, yet out into a whole other realm of time and space. The bass traditionally serves the role of grounding the harmony while locking in with the drums to provide a foundation, yet Mark’s playing often serves as another melody line in the music. In a lot of ways, he’s like a third guitarist that just happens to be playing bass.
The TMR on its own is a legacy few can compete with, and yet Mark contributed to more classic records like "Lick My Decals Off, Baby", "The Spotlight Kid", and "Clear Spot". There on Decals, you get the equivalent of Godfather II. With Mother Art Tripp on marimba and drums rather Jeff on guitar, you get an album that captures a great deal of TMR's brilliance while being brilliant in its own unique way.
Then you get to 'The Spotlight Kid', with bass godliness on cuts like “When It Blows Its Stack”, resulting in a bass solo that often opened shows, yet Mark proves himself just as talented on traditional in-the-pocket styles as demonstrated on cuts like “I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby”. And that thing about bassists being failed guitarists? In the 'Clear Spot', with Mark taking guitar and the rhythm section now being a mini Mothers reunion of Art and Roy Estrada, yet nobody missed a beat. Throughout the record, Bill and Mark’s kinship really shines, their weaving right there with what Bill and Jeff had done, or what was done with Alex St Clair early on.
Of course, dealing with Don was quite a task of its own, so it’s inevitable that Mark and the others would all end up departing by 1974. He and Bill soon formed a group of their own called Mallard. For two albums, the first with Art and having some writing help from John French 'Drumbo', Mallard showed itself a pretty decent blues rock outfit. And giving that it was Mark who finally had a chance to create something that was truly his own rather than helping some achieve their vision, it’s understandably the work that he takes pride in. And over time, he’d end up making a solo record and create some cool artwork of his own, as well as performing with 'Drumbo' in the reformed Magic Band, allowing the music to live and breathe on stage again.
If you’re a Beefheart fan, how can you not love Rockette Morton? Not only a uniquely talented bass player but such a great stage presence full of joy, along with a lovably quirky personality and such a sweet guy. Easily one of my favorites from Magic Band members, you can’t help but smile when thinking about Mark. He’s been through some rough weather, including his health scares, and yet he’s still the same Mark we’ve known and loved all the years.
Happy birthday Mark! Thank you for all you have given us and look forward to more.
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Patrick Moore is a freehand drawing artist and freelance music writer.
BRAMPTON: It was a cool spring evening, but Jesse Cook soon brought the heat in the room with his 4-man band and Spanish influenced guitar compositions. It was a treat at the Rose Theatre with a longer than normal musical performance and the maestro did not fail to please.
The Libre Tour is a celebration of the release of his latest album; the fruits of labour from the lonely isolation of Covid times.
The unmistakable bold sounds of flamenco-inspired guitar and the rich deep tones of the 808 drums juxtaposed with the emotions of the violin and occasional tinkling of bells filled the concert hall.
‘Jaleo’ with the famous guitar and violin interludes captivated the audience as always. The spell-binding combination of Jesse Cook and the Algerian-Canadian genius violinist Fethi Nadjem does not have words to describe it in the entire English language. The two musicians communicate with each other through the magical gift of music. The violin interludes are so emotional that you can feel Nadjem's passion come through in every note, holding the audience's hearts captive. ‘Oran’ is another spectacular piece of work from the album Libre where Nadjem's violin expertise shines through.
Jesse reminisced about his early years spent in France in an idyllic cottage in the countryside and the influence it had on his music. He dedicated the composition ‘Once’ to those unforgettable times. This work holds a special place in his heart. Its haunting flute notes creep in and accompany the violin and guitar beautifully. It conveyed amazingly well the nostalgia and longing we all have in our hearts for that special place or person or experience of the past.
Cook masterfully guided us through nostalgic notes to the lively rhythms of Rumba/Flamenco in his work ‘Viva’ (from the album Free Fall). It is an ode to his times in Colombia wandering into Brazil and it shouts out get up and dance with its strong beat transporting you into another world.
The interactive moments between Cook and Nadjem and Cook and Matt Sellick (master of the Spanish guitar) are more than spellbinding. The magic of their music uplifts your soul and tugs at your heartstrings.
The album Libre released in 2022, means ‘free’ in Spanish, is an apt "coming out of pandemic" work of art which holds a special place for not only the musician and composer, but for all of us.
It was truly a celebration and the audience did not need a second invitation when Jesse shouted out "Are you ready to have a Rumba dance party?"
The sound of classic tablero-style beats and flamenco guitars with the rhythmic clapping that accompanied brought the full house to their feet!
Compositions from the albums Free Fall and Gravity wove their magical moments with songs like ‘Viva’, ‘Paloma’, ‘Incantation’, ‘Air’, ‘Azul’ and the haunting ‘On Walks the Night’.
Of course, no Jesse Cook concert would be complete without the ever-growing popularity of the inimitable ‘Mario Takes a Walk’. Jesse also does a romantic and rare acoustic vintage rendition of ‘Fall at Your Feet’.
Jesse Cook has been composing and making music honing his guitar craft in places all over the world for the last 25 or so years. Cook was strongly influenced and inspired in his younger days by the French group the Gipsy Kings' during his time in France. Nicolas Reyes, the group's founder, lead guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer, who plays Flamenco (his parents were from Spain), and Latin American Rumba, gave Cook the roots of his interest in this genre. That was just a starting point and he has since then perfected his skills in the Spanish new flamenco sounds and brings together unique touches of violin and flute into play. As such, you cannot box his music into the genre of New Age; rather it would be a New Flamenco/ World music artist who we are speaking about.
If you are not already a fan of this amazing guitar man, please check out his upcoming Canadian tour dates and performances. To quote a song from the group Bread, "Who draws the crowd and plays so loud baby, it's the guitar man.... Something keeps him going miles and miles a day to find another place to play!"
We are already looking out for his next album and wish him and the band all the best.
ALSO BY NITA BALANI: Van Gogh show comes to Toronto
