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.
Rina Singha, renowned Kathak performer and choreographer, should be credited for planting the great classical dance Kathak in Canada
TORONTO: There is something admirable about pioneers in any walk of life who blaze a new trail. Rina Singha is one such pioneer in Canada.
She arrived in Toronto in 1965 as an exponent of great classical dance Kathak. But at that time no one in Canada had heard of Kathak, or indeed any of other classical dances from India – Bharatanatyam, Odissi or Kathakali. Few knew about India and Indians at that time.
Over the decades, through her performances and classes, her writings and lecture/demonstrations, Rina has created a special place for Kathak in Canada. And her dogged struggle to broaden the repertoire of dance through grants from the Ontario Art council and the Canada Council for the Arts has paid off.
By celebrating the fifth Kathak Mahotsav in Toronto this year at Harbour Front, Rina Singha has enriched the multicultural ethos of Canada immeasurably and has made Kathak and other Indian dances an essential part of the dance scene in the country.
Under the tutelage of Rina and other gurus from India, Toronto is now home to many budding and distinguished Kathak dancers who are taking an ancient dance form that once flourished largely in temples and royal courts to new heights.
Since Kathak - ‘telling stories through dance’ – is so inseparably linked to Indian epics and mythology, one could say that to appreciate it is to submerge invariably in Indian culture in all its rich and varied fecundity. But now, as the young Kathak dancers are experimenting with new stories and new dances from the West, something new is aching to take birth.
Over four evenings, Kathak Mahostav presented a wide range of dancers, from a 13-year- old boy Tanver Alam from Montreal to Rina Singha herself. It was a celebration of the virtuosity of the dance form – from pure and vibrant movements to endearing Abhinaya that so subtly weaves and unravels a story.
On one evening, highly accomplished duo of Hemant and Vaishali Panwar, dancing to live music, thrilled the audiences with their dexterity and imaginative improvisations. This is when Kathak is at its best, as it reveals its full creative potential as a way of telling a story and also as pure movement, full of aplomb. In the pirouettes of Hemant and Vaishali, and in their Abhinaya and songs, the chivalry and romance of Rajasthan came alive. It was enchanting!
Reflecting the spirit of Canadian multiculturalism, Sudeshna Maulik brought her most promising talent as a performer - and her group of young dancers - from Montreal where, like Rina in early years in Toronto, she is introducing the grandeur of Kathak to Quebec. And from there, she has taken Kathak far and wide - to Florida, Europe, China and Russia.
Watching other dancers – Paul Gupta, Reshmi Chetran, Keisha Sooknanan, Nirjhum Proshanti, Sharda Samaroo, Salisha Purushuttam, Divya Gossai, Namita Deodhare, Sadiyah Shamsuzzaman, Tanver Alam, Grishma Hirode – perform with dedication, one becomes aware how Kathak, and other Indian classical dances, are drawing students and admirers from every part of Canada, indeed the world.
This is no small achievement, especially when one recalls that not long ago, dancing for girls in India was considered far from respectable, and few had any opportunity to learn it.
By presenting Kathak Mahotsav in Toronto, Rina Singha has shown that Kathak is firmly planted in Canada, and its flowers are blooming everywhere.
(Dr. Sehdev Kumar, Professor Emeritus, now lectures at the University of Toronto. He comments regularly on Indian arts and culture. [email protected])
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Mitan Sidhu: As a teenager,I'd once had the privilege of watching the famed Kathak dancer Birju Maharaj dance at a private performance. I was spell-bound. He had such control over every movement. He said that while dancing he could control the number of bells he wanted to be heard that were tied around his ankles. He could, and demonstrated it, going from having all of them jingle to gradually getting it down to just one. All of us held our breaths as he danced around nimbly, allowing only one little ankle bell to tinkle.
The dancer explained that artists used their medium to describe objects and emotions. The medium of dancers was body movements. He challenged us to throw out random words and phrases at him, which he would try and describe to us through dance. One of those I called out was, 'cannon'. He did a thorough job of 'describing' one. The cannon was brought to life that night through Kathak.
Dr.Indira Bali: Thank you for this review and write-up.It feels good to know how Indian culture, especially Kathak, has grown in Canada. Proud of all these artistes for their contribution to not only Indian heritage and culture but also contributing positively to world culture.
newsadmin: Thanks Dhruv.
Dhruv Ghosh: Excellent feature! 
