Mark-Almond
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Mark-Almond | |
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Genres | Rock, Blue Thumb, Columbia, ABC Records |
Members |
Mark–Almond was a jazz-influenced English pop group of the 1970s and early 1980s, sometimes also called The Mark-Almond Band. The core members were Jon Mark, who sang lead and played guitar, percussion, and harmonica and Johnny Almond who played saxophone, flute and bass flute and sang back-up. Various other musicians recorded and toured with the duo at various times, notably including drummer Dannie Richmond, a long-time associate of jazz bassist Charles Mingus.
Early history
In 1963, Jon Mark, using his given name John Michael Burchell, and a former schoolmate,
From 1965 on, Mark accompanied Marianne Faithfull on her recordings and concerts. Moreover, he wrote and arranged many tracks on her first three albums ("Marianne Faithfull", "Come My Way" and "North Country Maid"), also writing a few songs for her ("Come My Way", "Lullaby").
In 1968 Mark and Davies founded the short-lived band Sweet Thursday. The five-piece band had only one recording, the eponymous Sweet Thursday, on Fontana Records. The band was composed of Jon Mark, Alun Davies, Nicky Hopkins, Harvey Burns, and Brian Odgers. However, the album was not promoted by their record label, and the bandmates never toured.
Johnny Almond, born John Albert Almond on 20 July 1946 in
In 1969 he had founded Johnny Almond's Music Machine and had recorded two solo records: Patent Pending and Hollywood Blues. On Patent Pending Almond is accompanied by Geoff Condon, Jimmy Crawford, Steve Hammond, Roger Sutton and Johnny Wiggins. On Hollywood Blues he jams with Curtis Amy, Hadley Caliman, Joe Harris, Charles Kynard, Ray Neapolitan, Joe Pass, Earl Palmer and Vi Redd.
Almond and Mark began playing together on John Mayall's (post-Bluesbreakers) records, The Turning Point (1969) and Empty Rooms (1969). From that experience they decided to form Mark-Almond.
Mark-Almond
Mark-Almond's first two albums, Mark-Almond (1970) and Mark-Almond II (1971) were recorded for Bob Krasnow's Blue Thumb label, and were noted for their embossed envelope-style album covers. The first album, including "The Ghetto", received many plaudits. It also contained "The City", which, at 10 minutes, 32 seconds, is notable for its range of styles and musical expertise.
The band's second album contained the Boston regional hit song "One Way Sunday", which garnered airplay for them in the United States on album-oriented rock stations in Boston, Massachusetts on the WBCN FM AOR radio station, and in Baltimore, MD at WAYE, according to Program Director Ty Ford. The group then recorded two albums for Columbia Records, Rising (1972) and the live album, Mark-Almond 73 (1973), by which time the group's members had grown to seven.
In October 1972,
Mark released a solo record for Columbia Song for a Friend in 1975. He and Almond reunited in 1975 and released To the Heart on ABC Records (which had acquired Blue Thumb) in 1976, which featured the drummer Billy Cobham. Other notable musicians, who have recorded or toured with Mark-Almond include drummer Dannie Richmond, violinist Greg Bloch, keyboardist Tommy Eyre and bassist Roger Sutton. Eyre and Sutton later teamed in Riff Raff. A&M Records signed the duo in 1978 and released Other Peoples Rooms (which contained a rerecorded version of "The City"), but the record did not sell as well as earlier releases. Mark-Almond disbanded again in the mid 1980s, after releasing two albums, Tuesday in New York' (1980) and a live offering The Last & Live (1981). In 1996 Mark-Almond reunited again for a CD release, Night Music, which featured keyboardist Mike Nock and others.
Late history
Mark moved to New Zealand in the mid 1980s, and released a number of successful solo
Almond lived in the
Discography
- 1970: Mark-Almond (Blue Thumb BTS-27; CD reissue: Line LICD 9.00105; latest CD reissue: Varese Sarabande [UPC: 030206730289])
- 1971: Mark-Almond II (Blue Thumb BTS-32; CD reissue: Line LICD 9.00517)
- 1972: Rising (Columbia KC-31917; CD reissue: Line LICD 9.00511)
- 1973: Mark-Almond 73 (Columbia KC-32486; CD reissue: Line LICD 9.00514)
- 1973: The Best Of Mark-Almond (Blue Thumb BTS-50) – compilation
- 1976: To The Heart (ABC AB-945; CD reissue: One Way 22084)
- 1978: Other Peoples Rooms (Horizon/A&M SP-730; CD reissue: Universal/A&M [Japan]; latest CD reissue: Elemental Music [UPC: 8435395500897]) – AUS No. 72[7]
- 1980: Tuesday in New York (Line 6.24242; CD reissue: Line LICD 9.00056)
- 1981: The Last & Live (Line 6.28538 [2LP]; CD reissue: Line LICD 9.00415)
- 1981: Best Of...Live (Pacific Arts PAC7-142) - compilation
- 1991: The Best Of (Rhino MIC 53872) – compilation
- 1996: Nightmusic (White Cloud 11026 [UPC: 747313002627])
Band members
- Johnny Almond
- Bill Berg
- Billy Cobham
- Geoff Condon
- Ken Craddock
- Mark Cranny
- Alun Davies
- Tommy Eyre
- Steve Gadd
- Colin Gibson
- Jerry Hey
- Larry Knechtel
- Will Lee
- John Leftwich
- Jay Lewis
- Ralph MacDonald
- Jon Mark
- Dave Marotta
- Jeannie McLaine
- Wolfgang Melz
- Roberto Pattacia
- Leon Pendarvis
- Dannie Richmond
- Carlos Rios
- Mark Ross
- Jim Salargie
- Roger Sutton
- Tommy Tedesco
- Bobby Torres
- John Tropea
- Bobby Vega
- Larry Williams
References
- ^ Anderson, Murphy. Magicat: Relax Your Mind With Jon and Alun
- ^ Rolling Stone: "Random notes. A bad mishap for Jon Mark of Mark/Almond. In Hawaii on tour with Joe Cocker last Sunday, he fell out of a tree and lost the ring finger on his left Hand." 26 October 1972.
- ^ John Halsey: Patto – the John Halsey Interview. (PDF; 306 kB)
- ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 243. CN 5585.
- New Zealand Herald.
- ^ "The Dead Rock Stars Club 2009 July to December". Thedeadrockstarsclub.com. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
External links
- Rolling Stone Encyclopedia: Mark-Almond Band
- allmusic-Biografie: Mark-Almond.
- Franco: Mark-Almond.
- David E. Miller: Mark-Almond
- Mark-Almond bio
- Mark-Almond partial discography
- Andrew Gilbert: Johnny Almond, unknown musician legend, plays Santa Cruz.
- Obituary John Almond.
- Fifty-year anniversary edition Mark-Almond.
- Mark-Almond Band – In Session – 1970 – Past Daily Soundbooth: Tribute Edition (Jon Mark – 1943-2021).
- Mark-Almond: The City. August 24, 2015.