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MARK DAULT & THE BIG BEAT BAY CITY DRUMMER SNARES ROCK, JAZZ & R&B HONORS AT 2001 REVIEW MUSIC AWARDS Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of 15th Annual Review Music Award Profiles that will appear throughout the summer months. By Mark Leffler "I don't want to work,
I just want to bang on these drums all day"
- Todd Rundgren
Drummers aren't usually the flashiest guys in the band. Most music groups rely on their drummer to keep a steady beat while the rest of the musicians' rock, swing or groove. The flash and dazzle most often comes from the front man. The Rolling Stones, Duke Ellington, Prince...how many of you out there can name the drummers in all three bands? Hands? I thought so. But that's okay, most drummers don't seek the limelight...it's the beat, man. Steady as a metronome and as vital as a heartbeat. That's not a bad description of Bay City's Mark Dault, who took home all the awards in all the drumming categories at the 2001 Review Magazine Music Awards held at Hollywood Nights on April23rd. Dault was named Best Drummer in the Rock, Jazz and R&B categories. Known primarily for his work with the Mike Brush and Ron Lopez Jazz Trio and The Matt Besey Band, the list of area groups and musicians that Mark has drummed with could fill all the stanzas on a finely lined music chart. The 'Grand Slam/Triple Play' was unprecedented (one drummer sweeping all three divisions) but Dault has received ten Review Music awards since 1991 when he was first named Best Jazz Drummer. Mark Dault accepting 1 of the 3 awards he received Asked what allows him to play so well in so many styles, Mark credits practice and a solid education. "There are a lot of good drummers around here and I'm just happy to be one of them." Dault recently had a chance to play at the Palace in Auburn Hills when The Matt Besey Band opened for Grand Funk Railroad (minus lead singer/songwriter Mark Farner it should be noted). Opening acts for world famous bands get less respect than Rodney Dangerfield, but the Besey group had the crowd cheering and on their feet for most of their brief set. And when they finished with a slow, bluesy cover of "Jumpin Jack Flash", well, everybody in attendance agreed they had never heard that song performed that particular way. Dault has been banging away on the drums since his uncle gave him a snare drum at the age of three (sort of like the Tiger Woods of the drums) moving on to a full drum set at age seven. He eventually began playing with his school's concert band in Bay City (where he was born, raised and still lives) in fifth grade. Just as the drummer is the backbone of any group, the early years and endless hours of practicing were crucial, Mark feels, to developing his chops to the level that allows him to move so freely through several styles of music. While at Bay City Central he played drums in concert band, symphonic band, choir, stage band, pep band and Bay City's Marching Band (which he proudly notes is the "oldest continual Marching Band in Michigan). While in high school a friend approached him to play in a Blues Brothers clone-band, cashing in on the huge popularity of the Dan Ackroyd/John Belushi blues revival. "We practiced in the basement for a long time...'Gimme Some Lovin' was my favorite." They played in sunglasses, costumes always being a part of the music biz, and did a little dance routine that was part of the show. "We played places like the Band Shell in Bay City, Caseville, Buena Vista...it was my first gig." Currently Dault is recording with the Jeff Hall Mighty Big Band, who was featured at last years Review Music Awards. The big band style is an extension of his college experience at Saginaw Valley State University, where Mark began taking classes while still in tenth grade of high school. During the mid-Eighties he played in SVSU's Marching Band, Concert Band, Pep Band, Jazz Band and Choir. He was also a member of the SVSU Jazz Ensemble from 1991-96. Drumming for Jeff Hall's Mighty Big Band poses a different set of opportunities and challenges for Mark. "The charts are a lot harder for me, personally," he says. "I wouldn't say it's (any more fun) than playing with a rock band, just different. I wouldn't want to give up the rock band." Mark sees it all as a logical extension of the band music he played in high school and college. "We didn't do a lot of jazz (in high school). We did show tunes." That introduction to show tunes was later followed by opportunities to play in the pit orchestra for "Oliver", "Oklahoma", and "Annie" at the Bay City Players Theater, and also "Camelot" at John Glenn High School. Mark Dault at the Palace of Auburn Hills During his college years in the 1980s & '90s, jazz music became the focus of his musical life. "Charlie Brown was the jazz band conductor and Tom Root was the concert band conductor. He was one of the best band directors I ever had." "Tom Root was an amazing man. He never would raise his voice at all. He'd promote pride in the band and enthusiasm. At the end of the rehearsal after going two hours straight on and going through the show and marching around, he would say 'Okay, you guys ready to go home yet?' And everyone would say 'Yeah, let's quit...we're tired.' And then Tom would say 'Okay, let's run through the show one more time!' "So it didn't take too long for us to figure out that one. Next time he asked we said 'Let's do it another time!' and he'd say okay, we're ready to go home, that sounded good, guys.' " "And then if anybody was talking, especially when we were practicing, rehearsing parts...just sitting there for fifteen minutes while someone else rehearses their part, if anyone started talking he'd just stop and say 'People, you're wasting my time. I could be out selling insurance or something. You'd feel so guilty about wasting time that you'd never talk again when you weren't supposed to. " "I learned a lot about self-discipline and respect. He never raised his voice and he was the most respected guy I'd known at that time. I think he went to California or something." "Of course Charlie Brown was in charge of the jazz band at that time. This was back in the early Eighties. My introduction to jazz was in that band. I didn't really know very much of what I was given." By the end of the Eighties and the early Nineties Mark was playing with various bands, including a stint with? and the Mysterians in 1985. "I learned a lot of playing in that band. Just how to rock out, basically. How to play loud. We played at Harpos (near Detroit). That was really fun." Then Dault pounded the skins for Diamond Head, a classic rock cover band from 1987-90. "We used to play 'Mony, Mony' three times a night. But I wanted to do more original music and more jazz. And that's exactly what I'm doing now." Since 1994 Mark has collaborated with Mike Brush and Ron Lopez in a jazz group that sometimes adds other players. They have been frequently featured at Saginaw's Wiseguys and recently performed at the C.A.G.E. Gallery. When the Matt Besey Band played the Palace with Grand Funk Railroad, Dault finally experienced most drummers' dream: kicking out the jams in front of a huge crowd on a stage where musical legends have played. "That was the most people I'd played before at one time. I'd played on stages that size before, but not in front of that many people. I didn't have stage fright, but I was a little emotional about the thing. I'd been sick a lot in the last few months and right before we went on stage my Dad made his way backstage. So I was a little emotional about the thing. I walked off the stage and I walked over to my wife and I said 'I could get used to this real quick'." Dault and his wife Brenda have been married since 1990, and Mark still recalls his first glimpse of her vividly. William Shakespeare wrote, "Love enters through the eyes." And for the shy drummer boy it was love at first sight. "I was standing with a friend of mine and she waved at him and I said 'Who's that?' And we've been together ever since. We dated for about three years before we got married." The addition of three children to the family (Bronson, 6, Jonathan, 4, Brooklyn, 2 and Jordan, 4 months) has made the balancing act of family, work and music a bit trickier. "Music used to be the most important thing to me. Now my children are. I used to think that music was life itself. Now I realize that music is art. It imitates life, but now I know what reality is." But the kids seem to understand how much Dad loves his music and how happy it makes him. "They love it. After seeing the Palace video Jonathan wants to be a drummer now. All he wants to watch is that Palace video all the time." Dault was in the studio with Matt Besey when local music legend Dick Wagner produced Besey's debut CD for Wagner Music Group. Wagner also used him on "Dick Wagner and the Raw Emotion Rock Orchestra" which was also released in 1997. The following year he contributed the beat for Al Hellus and The Plastic Haiku Band's "Raw Haiku" CD, and last year he appeared on Carol Berkovich's "Walking on Air.". However, like many musicians in the middle years of life, Dault has found great pleasure in teaching what he has learned to the next generation of drummers who feel drawn to the pounding bass drumbeat, rattling snares and crashing cymbals. He has taught private drum lessons for nineteen years, and currently is Percussion instructor at Herter Music Center's School of Music, where he has taught since 1986. And his advice to young drummers who might dream of playing the Palace someday, or decide to dedicate their life to jazz as he did in his youth? "I just tell them to listen to as much music as possible and study as much as you can."
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