Biography
Mark Naftalin has worked as a blues musician, composer, and producer, serving as keyboardist in the original Paul Butterfield Blues Band from 1965 to 1968. Since leaving that ensemble he has appeared on recordings with leading blues artists including John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush, Percy Mayfield, James Cotton, Michael Bloomfield, Lowell Fulson, and Big Joe Turner, functioning as sideman on more than one hundred albums in total. His elegant, understated keyboard accompaniment and well-judged solos remain in steady demand. Though first recognized as an organist, he has also recorded on piano, guitar, accordion, vibes, and assorted electric keyboards, while his solo concerts center almost entirely on acoustic piano.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1944, Naftalin relocated to Chicago in 1961 and enrolled at the University of Chicago. There he frequently sat in on piano at the campus twist parties then in vogue, and those sessions supplied his earliest opportunities to perform with harmonica player Paul Butterfield and guitarist Elvin Bishop, the core of what later became the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In 1964 he moved to New York City for a year of study at the Mannes College of Music. During a warm-up number at one of the band’s recording sessions he joined them on Hammond organ for the first time; Michael Bloomfield had already become a member. The group responded favorably to both the instrument’s sound and Naftalin’s playing, so he recorded eight of the eleven tracks on their debut album that same day, after which Butterfield invited him to join permanently.
Following the first four Butterfield albums in the late 1960s, Naftalin struck out independently and settled in the San Francisco Bay area. There he assembled the Mark Naftalin Rhythm & Blues Revue and took part in blues and rock sessions, solo appearances, revue performances, and the production of concerts, festivals, and radio programs. From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s he also worked with Michael Bloomfield in duo settings and in a band most often billed as Mike Bloomfield & Friends. Between 1979 and 1983 he hosted the weekly program Mark Naftalin’s Blue Monday Party, which presented more than sixty blues artists and groups, generated eighty-six live radio broadcasts, and yielded three television specials. Beginning in 1981 he produced the Marin County Blues Festival and, from 1982 to 1991, served as associate producer of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Blues Afternoon.
Naftalin co-founded the Blue Monday Foundation and, in 1988, launched his own label, Winner Records, which released classic-era recordings by artists such as Paul Butterfield and Percy Mayfield. He has continued to perform both solo and in ensembles throughout the Bay Area and beyond, frequently alongside longtime associate and slide-guitar virtuoso Ron Thompson. His radio program, Mark Naftalin’s Blues Power Hour, has aired with near continuity since 1979 on San Francisco’s KALW-FM.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1944, Naftalin relocated to Chicago in 1961 and enrolled at the University of Chicago. There he frequently sat in on piano at the campus twist parties then in vogue, and those sessions supplied his earliest opportunities to perform with harmonica player Paul Butterfield and guitarist Elvin Bishop, the core of what later became the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In 1964 he moved to New York City for a year of study at the Mannes College of Music. During a warm-up number at one of the band’s recording sessions he joined them on Hammond organ for the first time; Michael Bloomfield had already become a member. The group responded favorably to both the instrument’s sound and Naftalin’s playing, so he recorded eight of the eleven tracks on their debut album that same day, after which Butterfield invited him to join permanently.
Following the first four Butterfield albums in the late 1960s, Naftalin struck out independently and settled in the San Francisco Bay area. There he assembled the Mark Naftalin Rhythm & Blues Revue and took part in blues and rock sessions, solo appearances, revue performances, and the production of concerts, festivals, and radio programs. From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s he also worked with Michael Bloomfield in duo settings and in a band most often billed as Mike Bloomfield & Friends. Between 1979 and 1983 he hosted the weekly program Mark Naftalin’s Blue Monday Party, which presented more than sixty blues artists and groups, generated eighty-six live radio broadcasts, and yielded three television specials. Beginning in 1981 he produced the Marin County Blues Festival and, from 1982 to 1991, served as associate producer of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Blues Afternoon.
Naftalin co-founded the Blue Monday Foundation and, in 1988, launched his own label, Winner Records, which released classic-era recordings by artists such as Paul Butterfield and Percy Mayfield. He has continued to perform both solo and in ensembles throughout the Bay Area and beyond, frequently alongside longtime associate and slide-guitar virtuoso Ron Thompson. His radio program, Mark Naftalin’s Blues Power Hour, has aired with near continuity since 1979 on San Francisco’s KALW-FM.
Singles