Paul Mark Returns to Ardent with Jeff Powell

New York native and Ardent regular Paul Mark was back in the studio recently starting work on a new project with engineer Jeff Powell and assistant Lucas Peterson. Along with bassist James Strain, keyboardist Al Gamble (Gamble Brothers Band, City Champs) and drummer Harry Peel (Susan Marshall), they spent 3 days tracking 6 songs for 2 new yet-to-be-titled records. One of the records will be with Mark’s NY based act, Paul Mark and the Van Dorens; the other will be an instrumental guitar record (Mark’s second such record, the first being mixed here by our own John Hampton).

Mark has a long history with producer/engineer Jeff Powell, spanning back to his 2002 release IndigoVertigo. The new record will be the 5th that he’s done at Ardent. Says Mark of his relationship with Powell:

“He’s worked on four of my CDs with me now, I think. You could fit in a thimble what Mr. Powell doesn’t know about sound engineering and recording. You know he worked for several years with Tom Dowd [legendary engineer at Atlantic Records]. What happens is I show up at the studio with finished songs and a bag of tonal ideas for the tracks. Then Jeff makes sure that it all gets committed to disk without us breaking any of that expensive vintage gear. He and I are great old pals. Actually, maybe you should ask Jeff what the hell it is that Paul brings to the table. I’d be very interested in his answer.”

Mark also has some interesting insights on Memphis, as someone from out of town who taps the enormous talent pool we are fortunate enough to have access to here:

“Consider this: in Memphis many if not most of the music clubs have a Hammond organ permanently installed on stage. In all of New York you can count on one hand the number of club managers who even know what a Hammond B3 is. Very telling. In New York blues and soul and country music are considered “genres”— in Memphis they’re positively elemental. Every Memphis musician, from punkers to power poppers to jazz pros, has this roots music under their belts. Many very good New York musicians, conversely, can only feign expertise in these styles. I guess because it sorta kinda sounds simple to them. In truth it takes enormous dedication and involvement to play it right.”

Mark will return to Ardent soon to continue work on the new project. Keep up with him on his Web site, or check out his extensive back catalogue at Amazon.com!

(In the picture, L to R: Producer/engineer Jeff Powell, Paul Mark, bassist James Strain, and assistant Lucas Peterson. To the rear is drummer Harry Peel.)