Tag Archives: Mark Weaver

Local Don’t Mean Yokel (Part 3): Mark Weaver

Mark Weaver. Photo by Heather Trost.

The New Mexico Jazz Festival and the New Mexico Jazz Workshop’s summer jazz and blues series bring stellar talent to town. This year we’ve got the likes of NEA Jazz Masters Dave Holland, Charles Lloyd, and Dr. Lonnie Smith just for starters at the festival, and Brian Lynch and Matt Savage are among the stars lighting up the NMJW series.

The festival and summer series also offer top-drawer musicians in New Mexico an opportunity to perform in listening rooms and on stages where their music does not have to compete with bar chatter and the clink of silverware on china. This three-part series features ear-worthy local (or formerly local) acts stepping into the spotlight in the coming weeks. This final installment features tuba player/composer Mark Weaver and his UFO Ensemble, with original band member George Lane on trumpet, Micah Hood on trombone, and Rick Compton on drums. Continue reading →

The Return of the Shocking

Pray for Brain opens the sixth annual edition of The Roost.

OK, it’s not really shocking (I couldn’t resist echoing the previous post’s title), but it is definitely out of the ordinary: The Roost, Albuquerque’s creative music series, founded, curated, and
produced by Mark Weaver.

Weaver, who hangs out in the lower registers, notably on the tuba and didgeridoo, has an
omnivorous appetite for musical genres. He plays regularly in a trad jazz trio and an edgy,
unclassifiable banjo/tuba duo, as well as a wide variety of irregular aggregations that explore the far reaches of improvisational possibilities. He feels strongly that all varieties of out-of-the-ordinary music deserve a place to call home, and so he founded The Roost, which has
presented several weeks of creative sounds at summer’s end for the last five years. Continue reading →

Vintage Jazz and Blues with Riverside Jass Trio (and a Plug for Our Sponsor)

I’m beginning to think there’s a musician hiding under every rock in Albuquerque. The place is lousy with them—and good ones, too. The Riverside Jass Trio comprises an orthopedist, a
professor, and an architect. They’ve got a new CD and are planning a party to celebrate its
release. I sure hope their patients, students, and clients, respectively, are happy with their
professional services because music fans are disappointed that these guys aren’t playing music full-time.

Riverside Jass Trio, That’s a Plenty (Café Jazzed Music Productions)
A Review

Richard “Doc” Rock (trombone, banjo, vocals, and orthopedics), Wayne Shrubsall (banjo,
vocals, and a Ph.D. in American studies), and Mark Weaver (tuba and architectural
structures) have each made his mark in a
musical setting completely different from his band mates.

Continue reading →

The Roost: BaBa (and Buster)

Hybrid Music (and a Film, Too)

Mutt and Jeff. Stan and Ollie. Ralph and Norton. Banjo and tuba. Odd pairings all, but all of them work.

No, really.

Don’t believe me? Then head to The Roost, Albuquerque’s creative music series, this Sunday and catch BaBa—Steven Robert Allen (banjo, voice) and Mark Weaver (tuba, foot percussion, and curator of The Roost). They’ll be presenting old tunes with new twists, and new tunes with old twists in the first set, and premiere a live, original soundtrack to accompany Buster Keaton’s comic short film The Goat in the second set.

(I’ll even spring for your ticket if you’re the first person to post a response correctly explaining where the duo’s name comes from.)