First, to answer the question I know everyone wants to know about this one - "Is that your real hair?!?" 
No. No it's not.   😎 
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I lived in Japan for a year between 2002-2003 doing the teaching English thing, and made some good friends at one of the schools I worked at. We sometimes went out for Karaoke (of course!) and on one such night around Christmas I took a turn to sing one of my faves - Blue Christmas, the Elvis version. 

This is a live recording of me that night. The exuberant reaction from the group is partly due to the fact that I was/am normally a pretty quiet & reserved fellow, especially in crowds, and they were both shocked and seemingly quite impressed by my getting up to sing Elvis, and by how much I apparently sounded like him. 

I could translate some of what they're saying here, but you'll get the idea. For example though, the word "Sugoi" means "Cool!". In another spot, someone walks into the room mid-song, and another person says "hey hey, this is cool, it's Elvis!... watch this..."
See what you think.  ;)

Happy holidays everybuddy!

All comments welcome, and don't be shy to be critical or suggest ideas to help me improve.   :)
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here's some pictures I took: www.flickr.com/photos/mark_boucher/
my best photos on 500px (safe site): 500px.com/p/mrmark?view=photos

Blue Christmas (Karaoke in Japan)

I have some friends in Toronto who are serious students of West African Malinke drumming. This is an excerpt of a performance their band - Bolokelen - did in Kensington Market several years ago. I got to be a guest drummer on the Dun Dun (more specifically the Sangban - the colourful drum seen on the right side of this photo, played with a stick). Not my usual drum of choice (that would be Djembe or Congas) and it showed at times!

This photo is from the popular Afrofest show in Toronto, and the dancer is Tapa Diarra, a Malian singer now living in my home town Montreal. The fellow in the orange poncho is my best friend Frank, seen playing Dun Dun here.  :)

Just wanted to put up a few examples of my Latin & African drumming from back in the day since I am a drummer/percussionist first, but I don't have much here on Soundcloud.  apologies for the poor sound quality.

here's s few photos of my ever-growing drum collection:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=28551615%40N00&sort=date-taken-desc&text=percussion&view_all=1

Live in Kensington

Bolokelen (live West African drumming performance)

Yoshi & Chie are friends of mine from Osaka, Japan, where I lived for a year back in 2002-03. They now live here in Toronro, where I got to know them while busking together on the street, and jamming at my house with a few other friends. Here's a medley of music from that day:
https://on.soundcloud.com/UtPSC

Yoshi is an incredibly talented and super creative sitar player, sometimes playing with a violin bow, or with trippy electronic effects. He participated in a performance of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band full album re-enactment here in Toronto several years ago. Together with wife Chie, who plays didgeridoo, sings, and plays various percussion and electronic effects, they form the group Kaminari. Kaminari is a very popular act performing at various music festivals around Toronto, with shows now including dancing performances by their daughter.

This is a song from their early album Triangle, where I was honoured to be asked to play the drum (djembe) part - the only other artist on the album. 

Here's a video of a show they did a while ago to give you a sense of their stuff. I just like to plug them cause they're a super nice couple and a joy to play with. 
https://youtu.be/xAsKFPaRp24?si=thr44agGgN1ZXWND

thanks for listening!

(Written by Yoshito & Chie Yamano)

Triangle

Running Carpet (Kaminari with mistermark)

Here it is! A highlight reel of Eclectic Collective's greatest moments in the year 2023. This medley includes short interviews with group members, interspersed with their music. Special thanks to Jeff (StonerJazz) for hosting the Q&A, and to J.J. for assembling the medley. 

The Eclectic Collective (EC) is a very loose band of musicians who collaborate over the internet and communicate via email only. I'm honoured to have worked with the EC on a few songs, and look forward to playing with them again soon! Hope you enjoy listening!

CAST OF CHARACTERS (including interview start times):
Hosted by: StonerJazz on.soundcloud.com/6qwFQ
(1:32)    J.J. Terrell - keys, synth, organ on.soundcloud.com/ivM1E
(4:30)   Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary) - bass, lap slide guitar @josh-clary-1
(7:03)    K2 and the Three - drums, percussion @k2andthe3
(9:02)    Llanpsych - guitar, effects on.soundcloud.com/xehCe
(11:06)  TexMex Shaman - guitar, effects @texmex-shaman
(18:20)  MisterMark - piano, synth strings, vocals, effects on.soundcloud.com/qMWgp

Not interviewed in this piece, but a big thank you from all of us goes to:
Artur of Surfers Like Us @user-411502040
Mysterious Decibel @themysteriousDecibel
Steve of Steve’s Planet @Steve-Vervaet
Chris Maness @user-419254289-15129531

No animals were harmed in the making of this medley. ;)

(logo design my MisterMark)

Eclectic Collective Rockumentary - 'Bits of Hits'

Cast of Characters:
mistermark-- @user-432503709 -- Mark-- VST sax solo, harmonica solo, organ, tremolo guitar (synth), composition, arrangement, mix
Mysterious Decibel--@themysteriousdecibel --MD—lyrics & vocals
TexMex Shaman–@texmex-shaman –Stephen– second electric guitar solo, and mastering
J.J. Terrell–@j-j-terrell –piano and electric piano solo
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara -–Ken–drums and percussion
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)–@josh-clary-1 –-four string fretless bass, first electric guitar solo, rhythm guitar comping 

This song originated with a slower more Jazz oriented track Mark had previously written ('1 For The Money, 3 For The Blues' https://on.soundcloud.com/BtSS4). However, he wanted a more 'suped up' version with solos turns, so he turned to The Eclectic Collective (EC) to fill in the pieces by replacing some of his solos with their own. Mark had some lyrics in mind too, however, once he heard The Mysterious Decibel's excellent lyrics and vocals, the song totally changed the direction and the vibe, for the stellar. 

   Once we had a basic structure, Ken, as always, came up with the rhythmic foundation for the song, allowing Josh to add his version of Mark's bass line. Then, after MD gave us the vocals, we got down to adding the solos. As more EC members jumped on board with new parts, Mark kept lengthening the song, moving the solos & vocals around until it's final current arrangement. JJ opens the song with his thrilling piano solo, as well as the electric piano solo where he joins Mark on VST Sax right after the first singing verses. Then Josh added a melodic and very clean toned guitar solo with a very clean tone - the first of the two guitar turns. After that, Stephen added his fiery guitar solo with a more overdriven tone. After one more vocal verse from MD, Mark stepped back in to close it out with his nasty harp solo at the end. After Mark handled the mixing on this song, we turned once again to Stephen to take care of the final sound production and mastering, which he fulfilled expertly.  

  We hope you enjoy this jazzier side of the EC as much as we enjoyed making it. MD's lyrics are about a psycho killer artist who hides clues about his murders in his paintings. 
-Original Lyrics by The Mysterious Decibel:

Some might say he's crafty and planned
With a shade of black and a brush in his hand
Some might say the world is his oyster
But no pearl lays inside just a conjuring blur

He'll paint you a murderous scene
With the blending of  sin all between pigments of green
He's a shady fella who hides behind the canvas!
I spy something with my little eye
This art might show just where he died

Will you find it?
The secret
Some freak shit
are you so sure you'll really wanna Keep it ?
The secret
Are you so sure you'll really wanna keep it?
Ahhh a little secret
Are you so sure you'll really wanna keep it?
It'll haunt your mind like it does him too
He's a swifty one he'll come for you!
The secret
The secret
The secret
Are you so sure you'll really wanna keep it?

I spy something with my little eye
This art might show just where he died

His art might show
might show
might show
just where he died 

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Side Note:
This past Tuesday, we released a fun little series of interviews over a 20 minute medley of some of our favorite musical moments. If you want to hear our voices and some of our thoughts about music, check it out! You might really enjoy it, especially if you follow us, and have been for a while. It's a celebration of all of our work over the past almost year together in various forms. This song was supposed to be a showcase of all of our skills to accompany that medley, except Tez isn't in on this one. He'll be on the next one, though, for sure! 
Thanks for listening!

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All comments welcome, and don't be shy to be critical or suggest ideas to help me improve. :)

Mark's Album (post-2020)

'A Brush With Death' Blues (with The Eclectic Collective)

Cleaning the basement today I realized it's been about 10 years since I last played any of my drums, so I dusted them off and recorded a little something. I also found my old flute which hasn't been played in even longer, and added that to the mix. The didgeridoo is played by me too, though I can't really play it properly. This is a pretty rough take slapped together in a couple hours, but had fun messing around. :)
Best experienced loud(ish), with headphones

instruments played:
  -Wind:  flute, didgeridoo 
  -Drums: djembe, congas (2), talking drum
  -Percussion: maracas, cowbells, calabash, small log drum

here's a version with (my) voices added. See which you prefer...
https://soundcloud.com/user-432503709/flute-loops-jam-with-voices

Image designed & created with Dall-E

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here's some pictures I took:
https://500px.com/p/MrMark?view=photos

Flute Loops & Jam (*original version*)

same as previous upload, but with (my) voices added. see which you prefer...

See the original for details: https://soundcloud.com/user-432503709/flute-loops-jam

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here's some pictures I took:
https://500px.com/p/MrMark?view=photos

This track is not available anymore.

Other tracks from mistermark