listen mark holen's ZAMBOMBA Noches Flamencas (HCW 051)

Mark Holen’s Zambomba performs original works by drummer-percussionist-composer Mark Holen. A blend of flamenco, Latin, and jazz genres, NOCHES FLAMENCAS (Harriton Carved Wax HCW 051) is the ensemble’s fourth album release. The group features guitarist Basilio Georges and dancer-singer Aurora Reyes of the esteemed New York troupe Flamenco Latino. Saxophonist Richard Oppenheim and singer-flutist ethnomusicologist Katharine (Katchie) Cartwright of the jazz/world music duo Cartwright/Oppenheim, together with veteran Texas blues singer Michael Greene complete the front line. At the piano is Peter Phillips, whose career spans four decades with artists as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Maureen Fleming, and Philip Glass. John Loehrke, whose experiences encompass jazz, Latin, rock, classical, theatrical, and R&B styles, is the ensemble’s award-winning bassist. read more (pdf)

mark holen BIO

Drummer-percussionist-composer Mark Holen grew up with blues, jazz, and rock in Detroit and, later, Chicago. His diverse musical experiences include playing tangos and bebop in Buenos Aires; sambas in Rio; bendir in Marrakech; flamenco and jazz in Madrid; vibes and percussion with African musicians in Lisbon; and drums with many of New York’s established salseros, including Daniel Santos, Candido, Louis Bauzó, Machito, and Mauricio Smith. His credits include three albums under his own name, with the group Zambomba.

Holen became interested in Latin music while living in Chicago, upon receiving a degree in music from Central Michigan University. Shortly thereafter, he accepted a position as Associate Professor of Percussion at Indiana University, continuing his studies there under George Gaber. He left Indiana to take a job with the North Carolina Symphony, returning, in 1973, to the Detroit area. With his group, Joy Spring, he played jazz six nights a week for the next two years, composing and arranging for the band.

He moved to New York in 1975, landing the drum/percussion chair with the house band at the Chateau Madrid shortly thereafter. He remained at the Chateau Madrid for two and a half years, playing six night a week with many great Spanish, Brazilian, and Caribbean instrumentalists, singers, and dancers who headlined at the club, including the great Cuban congero Orlando “Puntilla” Rios, the Brazilian dancer Loremil Machado, and the famous Puerto Rican singer Daniel Santos. The musical influences were enormous, and he studied hard to become fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, traveling periodically to Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro to perform, hang out, and polish his language skills. He continued studies of Afro-Latin drumming in New York, most notably with Tommy Lopez, Sr., Frankie Malabe, and Louis Bauzó. His jazz compositions began to reflect his diverse experiences with musics of South America, Spain, and Portugal. Among the musical forms that caught his ear was the new flamenco emerging in Spain at the time.

After an extended trip to Europe in 1987, Holen moved there 1989, living in Madrid and Lisbon from 1989 to 1993, performing and serving as fulltime faculty in music theory, piano, drums, and Latin percussion at the school of the Hot Club of Portugal. He was now fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and the melodies of flamenco, fado, African, Brazilian, and Caribbean musics were firmly established in his musical vocabulary. Since his return to New York in 1996, his focus has been on composing, recording, and performing with his group, Zambomba. Their upcoming release, Noches Flamencas, is a blend of flamenco, Latin, and jazz genres. pdf version

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