Roger Marks Magical Mainstream

sound samples available soon !

	TRACKS	MUSICIANS
1	Crazy Rhythm	Roger Marks - trombone
2	Stardust	Bruce Turner - reeds
3	St Thomas	Craig Milverton - piano
4	On Broadway	Terry Sloggett - reeds
5	Oh Lady Be Good	Walter Bigmore - e piano
6	Satin Doll	Mike Gale - e piano
7	Jumping At The Woodside	John Broad - guitar
8	Caravan	Terry Turland - bass guitar
9	Exactly Like You	Gordon Clarke - drums
10	Sunny
11	Deed I Do
12	Mona Lisa
13	Games People Play
14	Ain't Misbehaving
15	Without A Song
16	Stormy Weather
17	Down By The Old Mill Stream

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Bruce Turner's visits to Plymouth to guest with The Roger Marks Quartet were invariably a matter of combining business with pleasure. We became good friends and he would stop-over at my house after the gig; the following days would include sightseeing trips, ice creams and endless discussions about jazz and jazz people. However there was never any musical planning of the actual performances, far less any arrangements, we just got up and played; that's why I think the live sessions and these recorded studio tracks sound so fresh and spontaneous - exciting even!
Tracks 1 to 8 are from just such a relaxed studio session in 1990 which, typically, just seemed to click. Bruce confided in me afterwards that the space afforded by the guitar-based rhythm section had been very much to his liking.
Track 9, Exactly Like You, is from a live session at Bude Jazz Festival 1991 where a difficult acoustic and less than state-of-the-art electric piano combined to spoil just about all of the other takes recorded that day.
Track 10, Sunny, is from a studio session by my original 1988 quartet. Every time I hear it I rue the fact that my headphones fell off during the penultimate chorus, suddenly plunging me into a total information vacuum. I could only guess what the piano, bass and drums were playing, so thoroughly efficient was the sound segregation in the studio! It's a good track though, and I include it as an example of the original line-up.
Tracks 11 to 15 are a sample from a studio session recorded 1989 at which time virtuoso saxophonist Terry Sloggett had augmented my quartet to a five piece, originally issued on an L.P. entitled Roger Marks Quartet, "Just the Five of Us!"
Track 16 Stormy Weather was recorded on location in 1997 and features old friend and former RM Quartet maestro Craig Milverton on Steinway and myself on trombone. It is from the CD "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" which is available on Raymer Sound RSCD683 featuring 14 trombone / piano duets.
Track 17 represents a leap forward to the present, 2007, and marks a recent collaboration with the wonderful Julian Marc Stringle on clarinet. Recording under the banner of Roger Marks and His Mainstreamers thirteen further tracks of this line-up are currently available on Raymer Sound RSCD867 entitled "Down By The Old Mill Stream".

Roger Marks August 2007

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Following his recent success with his Down By The Old Mill Stream CD, Roger has compiled Magical Mainstream, a collection of recordings from 1988 to 2007.
The first 8 tracks, dating from 1990 are of the Roger Marks Quartet with Bruce Turner (alto / cl), with John Broad (gtr) Terry Turland (bass gtr) and Gordon Clarke (dms). Bruce Turner, the chocoholic, would visit Plymouth and Roger to talk and play! With no musical planning, they just played, at the RMA Studios, and here we can relive these gem recordings, each a classic in its own right.
Track 9, again with Bruce, in Bude, has Walter Bigmore (elec pno) replacing John Broad (gtr).
Tracks 10 to 15 dating from the late 80's are of the quartet and the quintet with Terry Sloggett on alto. Mike Gale is on Yamaha piano.
Trombone and piano duets, Track 16, are rare indeed but 'Stormy Weather' features Roger and Craig Milverton dating from 1997 recorded at Warleigh House with a Steinway B piano.
To end, the CD is a fascinating insight into Roger Marks' interest in the mainstream elements of our music in a variety of musical settings. Roger's trombone playing shows contentment and empathy with this genre. Where else could one hear Bruce, Craig and Roger on the same CD all within 77 minutes. A wonderful release which I'm sure will be sought after.
Cheers.
John Leonard

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ROGER MARKS
MAGICAL MAINSTREAM
Raymer Sound RSCD876 2007
Produced by Raymer Sound (Tel/Fax 01823 662160)

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