Jazz with Attitude: Guitarist Mark Towns has national hopes in
this self-production of his CD (November 2000)
By Paul J. MacArthur
Anyone in Houston who is thinking about producing and releasing his own CD
probably could take a lesson or two from Mark Towns, who has avoided many
freshman mistakes with his debut CD, Flamenco Jazz Latino. The guitarist set up
his own label, Salongo Records. He's arranged for national distribution and hired
an established radio-and-print promoter to work the CD. Towns also scored a
coup when he convinced two Houston-bred jazz stars — flutist Hubert Laws and
saxophonist Kirk Whalum — to make guest appearances on the CD. "I just asked
them, and they said yeah," Towns says nonchalantly.
It didn’t hurt that Laws and Whalum knew Towns from various Houston gigs and
knew that Towns could play. Indeed, when asked about Towns’s CD, Whalum
decided to give a publicity-perfect quote: “In heaven my mansion will play
exclusively the kind of music that Mark Towns plays,” said Whalum. “Passionate,
Latin, rhythmic real music.”
Towns always wanted to play the guitar. As soon as he could talk, he hounded his
parents for one. "Even though I would ask for guitars, I was so small they would
give me a ukulele," Towns says. "That would piss me off. I would tell them, 'This is
not a guitar.' "
He finally got that guitar when he was ten. Having studied piano, Towns could read
music and took to the guitar like a natural. The first night he sat down with the
instrument, he taught himself a few chords. The next day he was playing in front of
his class at school. While growing up in Fort Worth, Towns started writing songs,
mostly of the surf/comedy variety. He moved to Houston in the late ’60s and played
in some cover bands; his biggest influences were the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.
In the early '70s, while living in Atlanta, Towns was introduced to the music of Dave
Brubeck, Les McCann, Eddie Harris and Paul Desmond. But Miles Davis and
guitarist John McLaughlin turned Towns inside out. The former's sense of
freedom, the latter's technical expertise and both men’s ability to go out on a limb
and seemingly never crash and burn inspired Towns to play in free-form jazz
groups and jam bands. Aside from playing guitar, Towns was making percussion
instruments and bamboo flutes and playing upright bass and keyboards. "I used to
have big jams at my house," Towns says. "It was just spacey type of jammin'
stuff. We never called tunes or anything. We would just get together and play."
When Towns moved back to Houston, he was playing percussion, bass and
keyboards as much as he was the guitar. He stayed in the jam-band mode until he
met some Houston jazz musicians who were a bit more disciplined. "We would get
together and they would actually want to play tunes," Towns says. "I was kind of
like, 'Wow.' I had been used to just jammin' so much that the concept of playing
tunes was kind of weird."
So Towns started learning jazz standards and how to play over chord changes. At
the same time, he was playing bass in some salsa bands and being seduced by
Latin jazz. As a freelance musician, he dabbled in other genres and found himself
learning classic jazz songs while also learning salsa, funk and rock tunes. The
experience provided a perfect training ground upon which to develop his
composition skills. While Towns wrote and played several different styles of music,
Latin jazz became his forte. “The rhythms, as far as I am concerned, are the most
sophisticated rhythms in the world,” Towns says. “They have been tested over time
and they work. They just sound so good.”
While playing in Latin bands, Towns showed off his ingenuity. After playing
numerous salsa gigs without a pianist, he created tumbao patterns for the guitar to
replace what were usually piano parts. “I spent a lot of time sitting around making
and working out things like that because I like that sound,” Towns says. “Those are
the things I ended up showing the other guitar players that wanted to learn Latin
stuff. I was in a situation where I had to do it. So that is how I did that.”
Soon Towns became recognized as a local expert on Latin guitar playing. Other
guitarists including Ed Cherry and the late Tod Vullo sought out his instruction.
Like many a Houston musician, Towns has taught his share of private lessons
and done a lot of jobbing. For a while he was writing up to three songs a day. He
has dozens of original compositions that he plays in concert. He still takes the odd
job here and there, but for the most part Towns is concentrating on his own band
and music. Based on the quality of Flamenco Jazz Latino, that focus is paying off.
Few independent debut efforts are of such a high caliber.
A European tour is in the works, and Towns already is planning his next CD. Laws
may make a return appearance. “I have been a big fan of [Laws’s] for a long time,”
Towns says. “I think he is the best flute player in the world. I want to use Hubert a
lot more on the next CD.”
Unfortunately the European tour and Towns’s local dates will have to wait a little
while. The guitarist’s ankles were crushed recently when he was hit by a car. It will
likely be at least a month before he is performing in public again. His recording
sessions in December are up in the air.
But that hasn’t stopped Towns from trying to get his new CD in as many hands as
possible. “I won’t be happy until [my CD] goes No. 1 on Gavin,” Towns says,
referring to the radio industry trade magazine, “and wins a Latin Jazz Grammy next
year and we get invited to all the major jazz festivals.”