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.
___________________
Patrick Moore is a freehand drawing artist and freelance music writer.
News East West
MUMBAI: Her own life could be the subject of a Bollywood movie.
Barkha Madan was the Miss India finalist along with Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen and Swetha Menon in 1994 and she went on to the become the runner-up at the Miss Tourism International the same year.
Then she entered Bollywood and the super-hit Khiladyon Ka Khiladi in 1996 was her debut film.
Barkha continued to be in films, setting up her own production company and doing two films Soch Lo (2010) and Surkhaab (2012).
Then in Nov 2012 she suddenly renounced Bollywood and became a Buddhist nun.
Today, this former beauty queen is known as Ven. Gyalten Samten. She has gone far away from the glamour world.
However, Barkha tells Mumbai Mirror that she will be back briefly in the glamour world to promote her last film Surkhaab about illegal immigration and shot in Toronto and Punjab. In the film, Barkha plays the role of Jeet, a Judo gold medallist who is forced to flee her country.
``It was shot in Toronto and Punjab in just 25 days with a skeletal 10-member unit on a shoe-string budget. I was the co-producer, the lead actress, and the chaiwallah,’’ she says.
[caption id="attachment_79067" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Barkha Madan before she became a Buddhist nun in 2012.[/caption]
The actress-turned-nun tells Mumbai Mirror that she enjoyed being a Bollywood actress, but there was some nagging restlessness inside her all the time.
She narrates her visit to Dharamsala in 2002 to listen to the Dalai Lama. She says she was instantly drawn to Buddhism and asked if she could be accepted as a nun.
But at that Lama Zopa Rinpoche asked why she wanted to become a nun. ``Why? You fought with your boyfriend?’’ he asked her, adding that ``joining the monastic order isn't about escapism. You need to embrace Buddhist philosophy and reflect on why you want to walk the path of Divination."
So, Barkha was back in Bollywood. Time went on. "Everything was going well but I felt something was missing," she says.
So in 2012 she again went to a monastery - this time in Kathmandu - and asked them to admit her to the Buddhist monastic order.
And Barkha was admitted as a nun.
Today, the former Bollywood diva lives almost in monkish poverty. She has only two sets of robes, some woollens and a pair of flipflops.
``My only worldly possessions are my cell phone and laptop. I live off my savings but I'm blissfully happy," Barkha tells Mumbai Mirror.
She spends her time either meditating at Dharamsala, or with HIV positive kids at the Tara Children's Project in Bodh Gaya.
Right now, she says she is praying for the Nepal earthquake victims.
Her aim is to start a nunnery in India. ``If you want to make movies you go to a film school. If you want to become a doctor, you go to a medical school. But where does an aspiring nun go to?’’
READ ALSO: Tamil actress Monica converts to Islam
Barkha Madan Height, Age, Husband, Family, Biography & More - Get Biography of Famous & Trending Personalities: […] 2 ↑ The Canadian Bazaar […]
mishuk: buddhism is just a section of hinduism
Nandalal: You are great . you finally decided the greatest path to liberate yourself from all defilements.
Rajendra ahire: Let's leave extremism in our mind & follow to Buddhism
lageraho natubhai: Ven. Gyalten Samten,nice to be know your divination progress
Somnath kolap: Namoo budhay
budhisum need of world
Bhatija: My salute with reverent respect to Barkha. It is not necesarily Buddhism which has made her renounce the world of materialism but the ultimate realisation has dawned in her mind and awakened her soul. To realse and accept this status requires superior form of courage and will power.. My due respects to you..
Akash Bhalerao: Very important thing that yessss BUDDHISM is need of all world.
navneet jadhav: Buddhism is need of world
kishori shan: The thing you did is much more big,the ordinary people cannot understand this thing right now.But when your dream, mine also get complete to open a abbey where new innocent child take their religious knowledge, at that time every one respects you from their heart.And we are with you. God bless you.... 
