Mark Almond ‎– 73 - 1973 - Art Rock, Jazz-Rock, Prog Rock (vinyl)

Mark Almond ‎– 73 - 1973 - Art Rock, Jazz-Rock, Prog Rock (vinyl)

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Mark–Almond was a jazz-influenced English pop group of the 1970s and early 1980s, sometimes also called The Mark-Almond Band. The core members were Jon Mark, who sang lead and played guitar, percussion, and harmonica and Johnny Almond who played saxophone, flute and bass flute and sang back-up. Various other musicians recorded and toured with the duo at various times, notably including drummer Dannie Richmond, a long-time associate of jazz bassist Charles Mingus.

In 1963, Jon Mark, using his given name John Michael Burchell, and a former schoolmate, Alun Davies; singer-songwriter, folk guitarist and skiffle musician, (later of Cat Stevens' band), recorded as a duo, an album entitled Relax Your Mind, on Decca Records.^[1]

From 1965 on Mark accompanied Marianne Faithfull on her recordings and concerts. Moreover, he wrote and arranged some songs^[which?] for her.

In 1968 Mark and Davies founded the short-lived band Sweet Thursday. The five-piece band had only one recording, the eponymous Sweet Thursday on Fontana Records. The band was composed of Jon Mark, Alun Davies, Nicky Hopkins, Harvey Burns, and Brian Odgers. However, the album was not promoted by their record label, and the bandmates never toured.

Johnny Almond, born John Albert Almond on 20 July 1946 in Enfield, Middlesex, previously played in Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and the Alan Price Set, as well as performing considerable session work in England.

In 1969 he had founded Johnny Almond's Music Machine and had recorded two solo records Patent Pending and Hollywood Blues. On Patent Pending Almond is accompanied by Geoff Condon, Jimmy Crawford, Steve Hammond, Roger Sutton and Johnny Wiggins. On Hollywood Blues he jams with Curtis Amy, Hadley Caliman, Joe Harris, Charles Kynard, Ray Neapolitan, Joe Pass, Earl Palmer and Vi Redd.

Almond and Mark began playing together on John Mayall's (post-Bluesbreakers) records The Turning Point (1969) and Empty Rooms (1969). From that experience they decided to form Mark-Almond