Mark Boston

Born: 1949, Salem, Illinois, USA. Boston is an accomplished bass-player, best known for his work with Captain Beefheart, where he gained the nickname "Rockette Morton". Boston grew up learning to walk on the one hand and to play the bass with the other. When he moved to California he met and teamed up with guitarist Bill Harkleroad. They played together in Lancaster, California, in a band called B.C. & The Cavemen. When early recordings began on the Zappa/Beefheart project that was to become "Trout Mask Replica" the Magic Band bassist Jerry Handley had already departed. This role had initially been filled by Gary "Magic" Marker, with whom the band had associated in the early production of "Safe As Milk" and a catalyst for the inclusion of Ry Cooder. Marker laid down three tracks for the "Trout Mask Replica" album with Harkleroad on guitar. However, things did not work out with Marker and he too departed. Boston - who was already known to both Don Van Vliet and Harkleroad - stepped in and, according to drummer John French, managed to learn the bass parts for "Hair Pie" and "Steal Softly Thru Snow" in one evening's rehearsal. Boston's work possibly made easier as he had worked with French in the band "Blues In A Bottle". From that point Boston was promptly nicknamed "Rockette Morton" by Vliet and became a mainstay of The Magic Band for a number of years, performing on five of the band's albums. In 1969 the unlikely magazine "Playboy" nominated Boston as "Bass Player Of The Year". Boston was a visually impressive member of the band onstage, dancing frenetically with his double-necked Danelectro Longhorn and, on more than one occasion, with an electric toaster strapped on his head to 'toast' an event. Boston left The Magic Band in 1974 after the making of "Unconditionally Guaranteed". With financial support and mobile recording facilities provided by Ian Anderson, Boston formed "Mallard" with Harkleroad, Zappa drummer Art Tripp, Sam Galpin on vocals and John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards. The band made an eponymous album on the Virgin label in the UK in 1975, including tracks written by John French who was in at the demo stage. The band made a second album, "In A Different Climate" in 1976, with John Draggota on drums and (an ex-Magic Band member and associate of John French in "Rattlesnake & Eggs") John Thomas on keyboards. After the demise of "Mallard" Boston played the gig circuit before teaming up with Leon Everette in "Hurricane" and finally residing in Aiken, South Carolina. It's from his small "Bomark" studio in South Carolina that Boston currently [2009] runs his life. He has released a solo album "Love Space" . Boston also performs dates in today's music collective known as "The Magic Band", along with John (Drumbo) French, Gary (Mantis) Lucas, Denny (Feelers Reebo) Whalley and ex-Beefheart collaborator Michael Traylor. This line-up first premiered in the UK at "The Garage", Shepherd's Bush, on 28th June 2004. Footnote: Boston was also cast by Frank Zappa as the character 'Gorgonzola' in FZ's 'teenage opera' script for "Captain Beefheart Vs The Grunt People". He was to play a part in Celestia's / Grace Slick's entourage in outer space.