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.
Indo-Canadian actress Anusree Roy, who comes from Kolkata, was honoured a few years ago when her picture in her one-person show, Pyaasa, was shown in hundreds of posters in the subway stations in Toronto
TORONTO: At the 35th Dora Mavor Moore Award ceremony, Indo-Canadian playwright and actress Anusree Roy won the award for the ‘Outstanding New Play’, Sultans of the Street in the Theatre for Young Audiences Division.
It was the most deserving recognition of a very talented artist by the theatre, music and artistic community.
Her play, Sultans of the Street, won in every other category as well: Outstanding Production, Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Performance by an individual, and Outstanding Performance Ensemble.
In her emotion-laden acceptance remarks, Anusree Roy implored all newcomers to Canada from all lands to reach out to the stars. Indeed, Roy’s own achievements in theatre in Canada testify to both her talent and her determination to make a mark as an important voice in theatre in Canada.
Unique honour for Indo-Canadian actress Anusree Roy
A few years ago, Roy’s picture in her one-person show, Pyaasa, was posted in hundreds of posters in the subway stations in Toronto, making us aware how a new talent, originally from Calcutta, was now emerging in Canada.
Dora Mavor Moore Awards, in the world of performing arts, are the most significant awards and recognition of actors, playwrights, directors and many others who are an essential part of performing arts.
This year’s glamorous awards ceremony on June 23 at Harbourfront, attended by the artists and culturati of Toronto, was marked by the presence of artists from every part of the world, who have now made Canada their home.
Indeed, as the names of nominees were being announced in various categories, and as the winners appeared on the stage, you could not but notice that the new face of Canada, not only on the streets of Toronto, but in the performing arts, is very multicultural, and multi-ethnic.
The stories these new artists are telling, and they will tell in years to come, have a different hue, a different context, and a different ethos. And they will all enrich Canada in wonderful new ways.
Every year, on this occasion, ‘The Silver Ticket Award’ is presented to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to theatre in Toronto area. The recipient of this year’s award was actor and director Diana Leblanc, whose contributions to theatre in Toronto, Stratford, Shaw, Montreal and many other places, over many years, are recognized and admired greatly by all lovers of theatre. She was last seen in the Soulpepper production of ‘Road to Mecca’ in a play set in the apartheid South Africa.
Under the artistic direction of Albert Schulz, the Soulpepper Theatre Company has become the most significant presence in Toronto, if not Canada. Its productions have invariably been imaginative and engaging. Its production ‘Of Human Bondage’ won a number of awards in many categories, including Best Direction by Albert Schulz, and Outstanding Production.
(Prof. Sehdev Kumar teaches ‘International Films and the Human Condition’ at the University of Toronto)
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