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.
Amalgam by Flamenco dancer Esmeralda Enrique and Kathak dancer Joanna de Souza creates an amazing Kathak-Flamenco fusion
By Aaloka Mehndiratta TORONTO: In celebration of the 40th anniversary of DanceWorks, there was a very sumptuous feast of dances from across Canada, indeed internationally. For the past forty years, as its mission, DanceWorks has curated and presented contemporary dances in Canada to showcase the emerging and established talent that has been steadily increasing and flourishing. In this mission, Danceworks has also been creating more and more appreciative audiences for the subtle and complex, and sometimes challenging dance pieces. Mimi Beck, Curator of the DanceWorks states, "DanceWorks began at the Music Gallery in 1977. We’ve had 222 numbered performances since then. True to its early roots, the The 40th anniversary edition features music, dance and performance by five seasoned choreographers, all of whom were presented in previous seasons. These pieces are a sampling of themes from different decades of DanceWorks, drawn from 1981 to today.'' At Fleck Theatre, in its 40th-anniversary celebrations, DanceWorks presented a number of world premieres at HarbourFront as well as classics of dances from across the years. It was part of NextSteps Series that HarborFront in Toronto has been mounting. In addition to the revival of Cheap Sunglasses (1981) by Holly Small and Robert Stevenson, Dancing with the Ghost (1995) and The Night Journey (2016) by Learie McNicolls, there were two world premieres, Moving Parts by Denise Fujiwara and Amalgam by Flamenco dancer Esmeralda Enrique and Kathak dancer Joanna de Souza, with live musicians Caroline Plante, Ian de Souza, Santosh Naidu and Maryem Hassan Toller. It was a scintillating collaboration between two very fine Canadian dancers, distinguished in two different dance traditions: one in Flamenco and the other in Kathak. Kathak-Flamenco fusion story It was twenty years ago that the two of them had collaborated in the creation of Firedance. Both Flamenco and Kathak are well-established and celebrated dance forms, with their origin and flourishing in two very different cultural traditions, one in Spain and the other in North India. No one knew what if the tow dance forms were combined, how Kathak-Flamenco fusion will look like. [caption id="attachment_73707" align="alignnone" width="800"]
Flamenco dancer Esmeralda Enrique and Kathak dancer Joanna de Souza - fusion at its best.[/caption]
As Canadian multiculturalism flourishes, and people with different traditions and experiences in music, literature and dance come together, there is a creative possibility for a new synthesis of art forms. That is how Amalgam stands out as a very creative coming together of two outstanding artists and art forms.
Joanna de Souza is not only fine Kathak dancer but also a bold and unique person. Born in Canada, she ventured out on a life-long journey to study Kathak under the late Pandit Chtresh Das almost 40 years ago, in 1978, and became part of Chitresh Dance Company from 1981-85. Under his guidance, as part of India’s long tradition of guru-shishya parampara, Joanne set out to learn all theoretical and other aspects of Kathak from her guru.
Kathak-Flamenco fusion start
At a time when Indian classical dances – Kathak, Bharatanatyam – were barely known in Canada, in 1987 opened M-DO. As a person of non-South Asian origin, as though venturing out to appropriate another culture, Joanne set out to provide, indeed give, another perspective on the traditional Kathak. With sensitivity and utter respect for the traditions, she created Chhandam Dance Company in Toronto, to teach Kathak, and to create and choreograph new pieces.
Over the years, Joanna has indeed contributed very significantly to the repertoire of Kathak, and to the delight of many in the South Asian community in Canada has enriched the tradition in numerous ways.
Esmeralda Enrique is, of course, a very well-known Flamenco dancer of Canada, who has enriched the dance scene in Canada for over many years and has brought laurels to Canada internationally.
She is the founder of the Academy of Spanish Dance and the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company.
Recipient of several awards, she has been hailed as one of the most influential Hispanics in Canada. Ms. Enrique has also been honoured with Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for Outstanding Performance and for Outstanding New Choreography in 2009 and 2015.
Thus, coming together of two very outstanding dancers for the creation of Amalgam, was a most welcome experience for dance lovers in Canada.
As a Kathak dancer, choreographer and teacher myself, and having watched both Joanna and Esmeralda over many years, not together but individually, I felt very proud that together they created a unique gift for the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday in a manner only they could.
Bravo!
(Aaloka Mehndiratta is a Kathak and Sufi dancer, and has always been exporing new ways to express in dance)
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