Jon Mark

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Guitarist Jon Mark (seated) as part of John Mayall's "Turning Point" quartet (with John Mayall and Steve Thompson (bass), 1970, Hannover)

Jon Mark (actually John Michael Burchell ; born May 8, 1943 in Falmouth , † February 10, 2021 in Rotorua , New Zealand ) was a British musician ( songwriter , singer , guitarist and keyboardist ), who was mainly known through his band membership with John Mayall and in the folk-rock-jazz band Mark-Almond and in 2004 together with his wife Thelma Burchell for the recording and production of the album Spiritual Tibetan Chants of the Monks of theSherab-Ling-Klosters received the Grammy for the best traditional world music album .

life and work

Guitarist Jon Mark (seated) as part of John Mayall's “Turning Point” quartet, January 12, 1970, Hanover

Jon Marks musical career was largely overshadowed by organizational and financial mishaps of his record labels: So was his 1965 finished solo album " Sally Free and Easy " published until 2017 and the distribution of the 1969 published debut album his band " Sweet Thursday " failed because of the bankruptcy of Record label, after which the band broke up and Mark was hired by John Mayall. As early as 1963, Mark and his school friend - who later became Cat Stevens guitarist - Alun Davies recorded the album " Relax Your Mind ", which, produced by Shel Talmy , remained an insider tip and has not yet been reissued. As a result, Mark was signed by Talmy, for whom he worked as a session musician and producer, but the release of the completed acoustic folk album "Sally Free and Easy", which was announced for autumn 1965, only happened half a century later Delay (supplemented with some outtakes and Mark's debut single as bonus tracks). Jon Mark recorded the eponymous folk classic Sally Free and Easy once with acoustic guitar and once with sitar , which makes his album one of the first pop and folk albums on which the sitar was used as a defining accompanying instrument. Sitar notes are also at Marks song Baby I Got a Long Way to Go to hear the Talmy in the summer of 1965, Ray Davies of the Kinks has played, which the sitar sound in his song See My Friends means of appropriately tuned guitars and Double- Mimicked tracking . But since Mark's album remained unreleased until 2017, the Kinks were honored to have been the first to integrate sitar echoes into pop music. For this reason, Talmy has repeatedly pointed out in interviews that it was Mark's unpublished song that inspired Davies to emulate the sitar sound image of the Kinks hit "See My Friends".

From the mid-1960s, Jon Mark composed and arranged songs for Marianne Faithfull , whom he accompanied in the studio and on stage, radio and TV appearances as an acoustic guitarist and which some of his songs ("Go Away From My World", "Lullaby", "Paris Bells") in their repertoire and on recordings. Jon Mark was also hired to sing the title track of Christopher Morahan's " Swinging Sixties " film " All Neat in Black Stockings ", the score of which was composed by Robert Cornford and which was released in 1969.

Mark next formed the band named " Sweet Thursday " after John Steinbeck's novel, along with Alun Davies, Nicky Hopkins , Brian Odgers and Harvey Burns . The debut album " Sweet Thursday " coincided with the bankruptcy of the record company, whereupon "Sweet Thursday" broke up and Mark switched to John Mayall in the summer of 1969 , where he became part of Mayall's successful and style-forming "Turning Point" quartet. with which he immediately went on tour and recorded the albums "The Turning Point" and "Empty Rooms".

In Mayall's band, Mark met saxophonist and flautist Johnny Almond , with whom he founded the folk-rock-jazz band Mark-Almond in 1970, together with bassist Roger Sutton and keyboardist Tommy Eyre , which until the early 1980s were eight Has released albums and has undergone several line-up changes and name changes over the years: "Jon Mark / Johnny Almond", "The Mark / Almond Band", "Jon Mark / Mark-Almond Band" and "Mark-Almond Band".

During a tour in Hawaii in October 1972, Jon Mark lost most of his left ring finger when Mark jumped from a tree in Waikīkī and caught his ring on a nail, which caused the tour to be discontinued and Mark's guitar playing permanently restricted .

From the mid-1970s, Mark has recorded several solo albums. Since the late 1980s he has specialized in ambient music, which he publishes on his own label "White Cloud". 2004 Jon Mark, together with his wife Thelma Burchell for recording and production of the album Spiritual Tibetan chants of Sherab Ling monastery of monks the Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album get (Best Traditional World Music Album).

In 2007 Jon Mark was a singer on Radha Sahar's nursery rhyme album “Radha & The Kiwi Kids” “Sing along with Teddy”.

Jon Mark's wife Thelma Burchell (November 20, 1943 - December 29, 2015) died of cancer. Jon Mark, who was featured in a portrait as "John Mayall's Forgotten Masters," died on February 10, 2021 in Rotorua, New Zealand.

Awards

  • 2004 Grammy for Best Traditional World Music Album (Best Traditional World Music Album).

Discography

Early singles

  • Baby I Got a Long Way to Go / Night Comes Down (1965).
  • Paris Bells / Little Town Girl (Brunswick UK 05952, February 1966).
  • Getting It Together / Mary On The Runaround (Tetragrammaton Records T-1512, December 1968) (together with Sweet Thursday )
  • All Neat in Black Stockings / Run To Me (Philips UK BF 1772, April 1969).

Early albums

Mark-Almond

  • Mark-Almond (1971)
  • Mark-Almond II (1972)
  • Rising (1972)
  • 73 (1973)
  • To the Heart (1976)
  • Other Peoples Rooms (1978)
  • Tuesday in New York (1980)
  • Best of ... Live (1981) (LP)
  • Best of ... Live (1981) (DoLP)
  • The Last & Live (1987) (CD version of Best of ... Live )
  • Night Music (1996)

Compilations

  • The Best of Mark-Almond (1990) (Black Sun)
  • The Best of Mark-Almond (1991) ( Rhino )
  • Mark-Almond (plus bonus tracks) (2007) (Bodyheat Records)

Solo albums

  • Sally Free and Easy (1965 and 2017)
  • Songs for a Friend (1975)
  • The Lady and the Artist (1983)
  • The Standing Stones Of Callanish (1988)
  • Land of Merlin (1992)
  • Hot Night (1992)
  • Celtic Story (1995)
  • A Sunday in Autumn (1995)
  • Asia Journey (1996)
  • All the Best From Jon Mark (1997)
  • Leaving of Ireland (with David Anthony Clark) (1999).
  • Alhambra (2000)
  • Quiet Land of Erin (2003)
  • Meditation on Winter (2004)
  • New York, New York. 24 Hours In The Big Apple (together with John Stanford and Nick van Dijk) (2008).
  • Sand (together with David Parsons) (2008).

As an accompanying musician

Web links

swell

  • Ingeborg Schober : Jon Mark: Markings. In: Sounds . The music magazine. August 1974. pp. 10-13.
  • Arne Schumacher: Mark-Almond. In: Taxim. No. 22 May 1982. pp. 34-46.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chloe Burchell [= Jon Mark's daughter]: Jon Mark (John Michael Burchell): 8 May 1943 - 10 February 2021.
  2. ↑ Jon Mark: Sally Free and Easy
  3. ^ Shel Talmy: The blueprint for producing 'See My Friends'. About Jon Mark's influence on the kinks hit 'See My Friends'. August 2020.
  4. ↑ Richie Unterberger: Shel Talmy Interview: Part One.
  5. ↑ Richie Unterberger: Shel Talmy Interview: Part Two.
  6. ^ Artie Wayne: Shel Talmy Interviewed by Artie Wayne, Part Two.
  7. ↑ 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." October 26, 1972.
  8. ^ John Halsey: Patto - the John Halsey Interview. (PDF; 306 kB)
  9. ↑ Sing along with Teddy (John Burchell, vocals).
  10. ^ Andreas Weigel: Jon Mark and Johnny Almond. John Mayall's forgotten master class. ORF, Ö1, Spielräume, April 21, 2013, accessed on May 1, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Jon Mark: "All Neat in Black Stockings" / "Run To Me"
  12. ↑ a b This album is not a compilation, but a concert recording in which the "best of" repertoire was recorded live.
personal data
SURNAME Mark, Jon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burchell, John Michael (real name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION British musician (songwriter, singer, guitarist and keyboardist)
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Falmouth
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 2021
Place of death Rotorua , New Zealand