Quintet with:
Liam Noble, Dave Priseman, Jasper Hoiby and Dave Smith.
Perfect Houseplants:
Huw Warren, Dudley Phillips and Martin France.
Big Idea:
John Parricelli, Julian Siegal, Steve Buckley, Rob Townsend, Dudley Phillips and Martin France.
Scratch Band:
Rowland Sutherland, Dave Priseman, Sid Gauld, Jim Rattigan, Richard Henry, Rob Townsend, Martin France, Dudley Phillips, John Parricelli and Huw Warren.
Other great musicians I luv playing with and who I think are totally mega: Seb Rochford, Tom Herbert, Pete Wareham, Leafcutter John, Nic France, Neville Malcom, Patrick Wood, Trevor Warren, Pamela Thorby, The Orlando Consort, Steve Watts, June Tabor,Django Bates, Roger Beaujolais, Winston Clifford, Roy Dodds etc etc
Influences
Everything and everyone really, but in the S's, Stravinsky, Sinatra, Shorter, Surman, Steeley Dan, Stalling, Zoot Sims etc etc
Radio:
Mark has recorded an interview for BBC Radio 3 'Jazz Line-up' which will be broadcast on Sunday 10th May at 11.30pm. More info here
Pre-order from Amazon for £11.69
Mark came to prominence in the mid 1980s with the influential and radical big band Loose Tubes, which he toured with throughout the USA and Europe and recorded with until its demise in 1989. The late 1980s also saw Mark composing and touring his own music, performing at Ronnie Scott's in London, and at festivals in Vienna, Paris and Berlin. Around this same time Mark was seen touring with Annie Whitehead and Roger Dean's Lysis.
The formation of the co-led Perfect Houseplants in 1992 saw the emergence of one of Mark's most important projects, which is still very much developing today. Perfect Houseplants has released six albums and is involved in several crossover projects such as its collaborations with the Orlando Consort (Extempore, 1998), with baroque violinist Andrew Manze, and more recently with recorder virtuoso Pamela Thorby (New Folk Songs, Linn, 2002). In 1998 the band represented the BBC at the EBU in Vienna where the concert was recorded and broadcast to 11 European countries. A concert recorded at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival this year was broadcast as a special BBC Radio 3 programme over Christmas and Boxing Day. This period also saw Mark collaborating with Irish pianist and composer Michael O'Sullebhain, and recording a world/jazz album entitled Matheran (Isis, 1993) with guitarist John Parricelli.
In the mid-nineties Mark toured extensively with Django Bates' Delightful Precipice, performing at many international festivals including Berlin, Molde and Willisau, and recording with jazz, folk and pop artists June Tabor, Billy Jenkins, Stereolab, Jah Wobble, Robert Wyatt, Prefab Sprout, Don Um Romao ,Thomas Dolby, and more recently Anja Garbarek and Radiohead.
In 1997 Mark was awarded the Peter Whittingham Award to record his semi-orchestral 11-piece group the Scratch Band. This formed the basis of Through Rose-Coloured Glasses, which was released in 1998 to critical acclaim and voted by Time Out as one of the Top Ten albums of 1998.
A commission from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Birmingham Jazz led to a suite of pieces inspired by dance forms, which formed the basis for the Scratch Band's second album, Imaginary Dances (Staytuned Records, 2002). In 2001 with the help of The Arts Council of England Touring Grant the Scratch Band undertook a ten date nationwide tour.
In 2003 Mark joined Seb Rochfords Polar Bear and has toured throughout Europe and recorded two albums with the group, the last CD Held On The Tips Of Fingers was nominated for the 2005 Mercry Award.
In 2005 Mark released Moving Air (basho records), featuring John Parricelli, Martin France and Mark's muti-tracked reeds this album has been described as his most personal album yet. A major Arts Council funded tour to promote the album took place Oct/Nov 2005.
Current projects include Perfect Houseplants, Mark Lockheart's Big Idea, The Scratch Band, Seb Rochford's Polar Bear , Disassembler and Robert Wyatts Soup Songs.
Stolen Nature adeptly bridges the synthetic/organic abyss with uniquely composed granular textures, aleatoric rhythmic patterns and modal jazz structures. The release's arcane theme is unfalteringly cohesive and conceptual from beginning to end. Miller's compositional sensibility on Stolen Nature has reconciled the poles of unadulterated, native sounds and processed, algorithmic music. These two adverse ideas are adroitly synthesized into a hybrid entity that lives and breathes on its own. The stochastic electronics laden deep in Stolen Nature's structure seem to have a sentient quality that hauntingly reflects recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence. The intricate machinations featured on Stolen Nature are inclined to deep personal sentiments and emotion. Cullen's application of traditional instruments takes the antiquated oral tradition and fuses it into a futuristic context.
If you want a hard copy of the CD with the artwork get a hold of me...
"At last a follow up to Janette Mason's sparkling debut as leader. Alien Left Hand ....was well worth the wait…” Production **** Performance**** -- BBC Music Magazine
“…an album fizzing with fresh ideas and delights, an exhilarating musical journey .. with brilliantly original writing and inspired playing…” -- Helen Mayhew
"Every track from the rhythmic ‘NY Cab Ride’ and restless ‘4 Wheel Drive’ to the brooding ‘Mae’s Song’ has a terrific hook but it’s the way Mason switches tempo and moods that makes ALH great fun. " -- Diva Magazine
