Mark Stanley (born November 7, 1968) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer based in Maryland, USA. A multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, his primary instrument is guitar, on which he touches a wide mix of styles, including jazz, psychedelia, post-punk, art rock, avant-pop, and avant progressive rock.
Stanley has been working with members of The Muffins since his first recording, "Disconcerto" by Chainsaw Jazz (1993). He has performed live with The Muffins, 9353, Chainsaw Jazz, Clutch, Kristeen Young, Spookey Ruben, and Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, Perfect Circle, Failure). Stanley was a founding member of the band Handsome (band) with Peter Mengede (Helmet). He is the songwriter, vocalist and guitarist for the band Spy Machines (Jean Paul Gaster, Mike Dillon, and Hank Upton) and co-fronts the band Farquhar with Mark Smoot. He has recorded under the pseudonyms Johnny Foodstamps, Pig Manikin, and Levitating Pam.
Stanley studied at Berklee College of Music before graduating from NYU with a degree in Jazz Studies. His private teachers include Wayne Krantz, Hal Galper, Bruce Arnold, Charlie Banacos and Paul Bollenback.
Mark Stanley is the 1st cousin once removed of Owsley Stanley, the great grandson of Augustus Owsley Stanley, great great-grandson of Pierce Crosby, and Otto Hilgard Tittmann and is the great great-grandnephew of William Owsley.
Stanley has released eighteen recordings as a bandleader:
His band Farquhar has made three records distributed by Cuneiform Records
William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist. Beginning in the 1980s, Parker played with Cecil Taylor for over a decade, and he has led the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra since 1981. The Village Voice named him "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time" and DownBeat has called him "one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz".
Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland. Since its formation in 1991, the band lineup has included Tim Sult, Dan Maines (bass), Jean-Paul Gaster (drums), and Neil Fallon. To date, Clutch has released thirteen studio albums, and several rarities and live albums. Since 2008, the band has been signed to their own record label, Weathermaker Music.
Martha and the Muffins are a Canadian rock band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single "Echo Beach" under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and the core members of the band also charted in Canada and internationally as M + M.
Augustus Owsley Stanley III was an American-Australian audio engineer and clandestine chemist. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role in the decade's counterculture. Under the professional name Bear, he was the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead, recording many of the band's live performances. Stanley also developed the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound, one of the largest mobile sound reinforcement systems ever constructed. Stanley also helped Robert Thomas design the band's trademark skull logo.
June of 44 is an American rock band which was formed in 1994 from ex-members of Rodan, Lungfish, Rex, and Hoover. The band's name refers to the period during which writers Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin corresponded.
Pitchfork is the debut EP by the band Clutch, which was released on vinyl 7" & 12" in October 1991, only in the USA.
Don Gabriel Pullen was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed pieces ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz. The great variety of his body of work makes it difficult to pigeonhole his musical style.
The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz disc jockey Jimmy Lyons.
John Laird Abercrombie was an American jazz guitarist. His work explored jazz fusion, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz. Abercrombie studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his understated style and his work with organ trios.
Old and New Dreams was an American jazz group that was active from 1976 to 1987. The group was composed of tenor saxophone player Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell. All of the members were former sidemen of free jazz progenitor and alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and the group played a mix of Coleman's compositions and originals by the band members.
Pitchfork & Lost Needles is a Clutch compilation album, released in 2005, of previous EPs by the band, with some demos and session outtakes.
20 Jazz Funk Greats is the third studio album by British industrial music group Throbbing Gristle, released in December 1979 by the band's label Industrial Records. It is known for its tongue-in-cheek title and artwork, and has been hailed as the band's best work, with UK magazine Fact naming it the best album of the 1970s, and Pitchfork naming it the best industrial album of all time.
John Josephus Hicks Jr. was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. He was leader of more than 30 recordings and played as a sideman on more than 300.
Mark Feldman is an American jazz violinist.
Kamchatka are a Swedish power trio highly influenced by late 1960s and early 1970s blues rock bands. Their sound combines elements of blues rock, stoner rock and psychedelic rock.
Jean-Paul Gaster is the drummer for American rock band Clutch.
Charlie Looker is an American composer, improviser, vocalist, and guitarist known for his work in experimental metal, contemporary classical, avant-jazz, and Renaissance and Medieval musical forms.
The Muffins were an American Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz group. They were formed in Washington, DC in the early 1970s and recorded four albums before disbanding in 1981. In 1998 the group reformed and recorded a further five albums and a DVD. The Muffins played at Symphony Space on Broadway in NYC with Marion Brown in 1979, and also performed at a number of festivals, starting with the ZU Manifestival in New York City in 1978, The Villa Celimontana festival in Rome, Italy in 2000, two appearances at Progday in 2001 and 2002, NEARfest in 2005, and the "Rock in Opposition" festival in France in 2009. In 2010, The Muffins headlined at Progday, making a third appearance at this long running festival.
Phillip Sanford Wilson was an American blues and jazz drummer, a founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
Raining on the Moon is an album by American jazz bassist and composer William Parker's Quartet featuring vocalist Leena Conquest, which was recorded in 2001 and released on the Thirsty Ear label. Since the original album, the name has also come to identify the group from this record, including, on all subsequent releases to date, pianist Eri Yamamoto.