Musically in tune… places to jam around town

7th March 2016   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

Mark Brooks – A Man of Many Genres

“There’s not much that I haven’t done,” bassist and vocalist Mark Brooks heartily declares. “I’ve really enjoyed my career and playing all the different styles.” A member of the very musical Brooks family, Mark got his start singing along with his siblings – Juanita, Detroit, George and Barbara – with his father’s gospel group, the Masonic Kings. At first primarily working as a sideman in modern jazz, funk, rhythm and blues and brass bands, Brooks has found satisfaction as a traditional jazz artist. He’ll be wielding his upright, acoustic bass leading his Mark Brooks & Friends band at the Nickel-A-Dance show on Sunday, March 13.

“I find the traditional music more part-oriented – it’s more cohesive to me,” says Brooks comparing it to modern jazz styles with which he’s had extensive experience. “In traditional jazz you have parts that you play and all the parts come together to make that song happen. In modern jazz it’s somewhat the same concept but the parts aren’t as defined to me. I just like it, you know.”

Naturally, the role of a sideman differs from that of a leader, a position he’s taken on more of late heading groups on the Creole Queen and for the Sunday jazz brunch at Muriel’s. “As a band leader, you’re responsible for everybody up there,” he notes. “You have to read the audience to see what direction to take the music.” Perhaps contrary to what one might expect, Brooks says as a leader he doesn’t solo as much as when he’s playing with other people. “In most cases, I’m singing so I give the other guys the opportunity to solo.”

“The bass has come miles from where it used to be but it still has not been completely accepted as a solo instrument,” Brooks adds.

Throughout his long career Brooks, whose band at Nickel-A-Dance includes banjoist/guitarist Don Vappie, trumpeter Mark Braud, reedman Christian Winther, pianist Mike Esnault and drummer Doug Belote, has performed with a who’s who of New Orleans musicians. His diverse resume includes time spent playing rhythm and blues with the likes of outstanding pianists/vocalists Fats Domino and Davell Crawford.

Brooks was just 13 or 14 years old when he began hitting the bass behind the great and absolutely unique pianist and vocalist Eddie Bo with whom he also recorded. “I learned a lot with him,” says Brooks who played off and on with Bo until his death in 2009. Bo’s philosophy, Brooks explains was less is more. “He would take these simple rhythmic patterns and he would make so much happen with them.”

The bassist also enjoyed a long stint with saxophonist James Rivers who regularly wowed the crowds at the now defunct Tyler’s Beer Garden.

“I learned more of the modern jazz from him,” Brooks confirms – “and tunes like {saxophonist John Coltrane’s) ‘Moment’s Notice.’ I learned about playing over changes.”

Brooks describes ending up with the bass as his main ax “the luck of the draw.” Just by circumstance, he played trombone at Francis T. Nicholls High School and he majored on the instrument at Southern University in Baton Rouge. He also blew the ‘bone with trumpeter Doc Paulin’s and the Fairview Baptist Church brass bands.

He always did fool around with the bass at home, so when his older brother wanted to sing more with the family gospel group, Brooks took over the bass duties. Since he was only a 10-year-old with small hands, he naturally picked up the electric.

At Southern University, Brooks was a classmate of two of today’s most highly regarded modern jazz saxophonists – Branford Marsalis and Donald Harrison Jr. During that time he and Branford worked together in a funk band provocatively called, Uncle Remus. “A storyteller,” Brooks notes.

Down the road, Brooks also worked with Harrison when the saxophonist returned to New Orleans after time spent on the east cost. Harrison recruited him to perform on music he wrote for the HBO series “Treme.”

“I was blessed,” says Brooks with great sincerity of all the wonderful musicians he’s had the opportunity to play with. “I’ve been really, really fortunate. Everybody brought something different. Like (pianist/vocalist) Henry Butler. People used to ask us what we were going to play. I’d say, ‘I don’t know.’ He never called a tune – he would just start playing. Through his doodling, you would hear repetition and once that repetition started it would spell out what he was about to play. It was a musical voyage.”

“I enjoy Nickel-A-Dance because the people enjoy the music so much. It’s great to play and get paid for it, but it just adds something to it when the people you’re playing for connect with the music.”

The Nickel-A-Dance series is presented each Sunday from 4 pm to 7 pm through March 27 at the Maison, 508 Frenchmen Street. It’s free and children are welcome.

Heads Up – Wine Down Jazz Up! Jumps Days

One of New Orleans best kept secrets – who knows why? – is the terrific gig in the bar area of the Tableau Restaurant led by piano master David Torkanowsky. The Thursday night modern jazz staple, Wine Down Jazz Up!, recently moved to Mondays and now begins at an earlier 4 p.m. People around the world would drool at the artists who perform at the wonderfully intimate venue and would be shocked that the shows, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., are free. (Happy hour is from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with half-priced wine and beer.) Great musicians like trumpeter Nicholas Payton and drummer Herlin Riley remain regulars at the corner spot where Chartres Street meets St. Peter Street. This week, on March 14, the Tableau presents Torkanowsky with drummer Shannon Powell, clarinetist Evan Christopher, and bassist Peter Harris.

This article originally published in the March 7, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.