March 23, 2019: Laura Marks at 120 Diner
February 24th, 2019
“57 Minutes” comprises twelve of the band’s favourite tunes,
recorded at Noble Street Studios October 30 and 31, 2012.
Laura Marks has described the theme of her debut CD as “Songs that we like to play”, and she further explains, “Mark, Ross, Ben and I have played together on and off since July, 2010 and Chris and Reg joined us in 2012. 57 Minutes was recorded over a two day period at Noble Street Studios, Toronto with many “first takes” having been included in the project to ensure as spontaneous and real an outcome as possible.
Laura Marks sings with the same quiet intensity and sensuality that informs her paintings. Her cool, restrained style draws the listener into a shared intimacy. Coming from an artistic family, she has been singing all her life and was exposed to classical music, jazz, folk, rock and blues at a very early age. It’s in her blood. Over the last few years Laura has performed jazz and Latin music at various clubs around Toronto including The Rex, The Reservoir Lounge, Hugh’s Room, Lula Lounge, The Trane Studio and Ten Feet Tall.
Versatile pianist Mark Kieswetter has performed alongside jazz greats including Zoot Sims, Jack Sheldon and James Moody. For over three years, he was the musical director for the legendary Jon Hendricks, working with him in developing the large vocal ensemble “Vocalstraâ”, and performing at such venues as the International Association of Jazz Educators in New York and the Sorbonne in Paris. He has recorded two recent albums with bassist, Ross MacIntyre. Mark is responsible for the elegant and evocative arrangements of the music on “57 Minutes”.
Torontonian, Ross MacIntyre is one of the most lyrical and virtuosic bass players around. He’s in great demand both as a performer and as a studio musician. He plays regularly with singer, Shannon Butcher and he’s toured internationally with Matt Dusk, Elizabeth Shepherd and Emily Clare Barlow among others. He and pianist Mark Kieswetter have recorded two CDs as a duo.
A graduate of York University, Ben Riley has played alongside Bruce Cockburn, Holly Cole, Michael Burgess, Molly Johnson, Joe Sealy, Doug Riley, Jake Langley, NOJO, Marc Jordan, Amy Sky, Moe Koffman, Domenic Troiano, Joshua Nelson, Matt Dusk, Wynton Marsalis and Gary Burton among others. Ben co-leads an original soul/R&B project in Toronto, Planet Earth, which has opened for Maceo Parker as well as for the Toronto International Film Festival. Ben has toured extensively throughout Canada, Europe, the U.S., China and Japan with many highly acclaimed acts. He has played on countless albums and hundreds of commercials, as well as music for film and TV.
After graduating from Mohawk College, Chris studied at McGill in Montreal and later at the University of Toronto. Since moving to Toronto in 1994, Hamilton born saxophonist Chris Gale has recorded extensively and toured internationally. His talents as a composer and jazz artist can be heard on his debut CD Strays Stays. He’s recorded and toured with Canadian singer-songwriter Colin James, Blue Rodeo, Ron Sexsmith, Brandi Disterheft, Richard Underhill, and Michael Kaeshammer, and performs regularly in clubs around Toronto.
Reg has toured extensively across Canada and worldwide with George Shearing, Diana Krall, Peter Appleyard, Rob McConnell and many others. He appears on over 80 commercially released recordings with such artists as Junior Mance, Gary Burton, George Shearing and Mel Tormé. He’s released several CDs under his own name including his latest in collaboration with David Restivo, “Arctic Passages”.
Benny Golson, saxophonist, composer and arranger wrote Whisper Not in 1956 when he was with Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band. Jazz writer, Leonard Feather wrote the lyrics. Anita O’Day recorded the first vocal version of the song in 1958.
Composer Antonio Carlos Jobim collaborated over the telephone with poet Vincius Moraes, who was in Uruguay at the time, to write the song A Felicidade for the haunting 1959 film Black Orpheus, adapted from the play written by Vincius Moraes based on the Greek myth Orpheus and Euridice. In the film the story is told in the context of a favela, or shantytown of Rio De Janeiro during Carnaval.
SHOW/HIDE LYRIC TRANSLATIONSadness never ends but happiness does
The happiness of the feather that floats on the air,
It floats so lightly, but its life is brief
because it needs the wind to keep it aloft.
The happiness of the poor
seems to be the great illusion during carnival.
People work the entire year
for that one moment of fantasy:
that they are a king or a pirate or a gardener
but everything’s over by Wednesday.
Happiness is like a dewdrop on the petal of a flower.
It shines, still,
then shivers and falls like a tear of love.
My happiness is dreaming
In the eyes of my girlfriend.
It is like this night
passing, passing
in search of the dawn.
Speak low, please
so she wakes up joyful as the day
offering love kisses.
Sadness never ends
I come
I come from Bahia, singing
I come from Bahia country.
There’s so much that is beautiful
in Bahia, which is my home.
It has my ground, got my sky, my sea,
Bahia, that exists in order to show you
how to live.
Where we do not have to eat
but do not die of hunger.
because the Bahian mother has Lemanjá *
On the other hand the Lord of Bonfim **
helps the Bahian living to sing, to dance samba for real
to die of joy in street party in samba
on the night of the moon, in the corner of the sea.
I come from Bahia
but I return there.
I come from Bahia
*Lemanja or Yemanja is the mother goddess of the sea from the African religion, Umbanda that blends with Catholicism and Spiritism in Bahia. She represents the feminine principle of creation and motherhood and she is the protector of children.
**Senhor Do Bonfim is “Our Lord of the Good End” represented by the crucified Jesus in the moment of his death. The tradition of Senhor do Bonfim has its origins in both Catholicism and Candomblé, a religion from Yoruba, West Africa.
Two gardenias for you.
With them I want to say
I love you; I adore you; my life!
Focus all your attention on them
as they represent your heart and mine.
Two gardenias for you
that will have all the heat of a kiss,
of those kisses that I gave you
and that you will never find
in the fervour of another love.
By your side they will live
and they will talk to you
as if you were with me
and you will even find yourself thinking
that they are telling you, “I love you”
but if one evening at dusk
the gardenias of my love die
it’s because they have discovered
that your love for me has ended
because another love exists.
I am always asking you
When, how and where?
You always tell me
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
The days pass this way
And I am despairing
And you, you always answer
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
You are wasting time
Thinking, thinking
what you want most
Until when? Until when?
The days pass this way
and I am despairing
and you, you always answer
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
One of the most famous and influential takes was recorded by Coleman Hawkins in 1939. Because Hawkins only hinted at the melody and improvised throughout the recording it’s considered to be one of the first examples of early be-bop. The song is the most covered jazz standard of all time.
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