HEAR YE : How did this band come about?
MM : Livin' Like Kings exists because my husband Arne grew tired of watching what he said amounted to "abuse" by other musicians. I wanted to quit singing altogether, but he refused to let me quit. I've tried to quit several times, go to school to learn something else, to try to get a "real job," but nothing else fits me or feels as right to me as music. This time, though, I thought I was ready to move on. He knew better.
At the end of March 2008, after we were forced to shut down the studio in Sausalito, Arne was a bit lost and eager to get "back to the music. He expressed a desire to pick up his bass again. Most people don't know that Arne was a child prodigy on piano until he switched to upright bass in his teens. He toured with Maynard Ferguson at seventeen. He gigged on electric bass all through his college years, and up until he got so busy running studios, that he couldn't do both.
Anyway, every night after I went to bed, he'd
play for hours. After a couple of weeks went by, he said to me. "Let's start a blues band. I'll play bass." After first I told him "No" - but he insisted, and it seemed to mean so much to him, I reluctantly agreed, but on one condition, "...if you want to be in my band, you'd better keep wood sheddin'." (laughs) You should have seen the look on his face! I explained to him that when I was playing blues in North Beach, we had guys like Willie Riser, Josh Zucker, Mike Rogers, Burton Winn, Randy Bermudez - top guys in the Bay Area, so if he was going to take a gig away from one of those players, he needed to earn it! Ask him - he'll tell you he had filled in on a couple a pick up
gigs I had done with Steve Freund several years prior and was
surprised at how tired his hands were after three sets.
I hate to admit, I was HARSH. But hey I'd rather someone be honest with me, than lie just to be polite. That helps no one. To be honest, I thought he would
just play a bit and get it out of his system. I didn't really think we
would ever start a band together. But he'd learn a bunch of tunes, ask me for
more blues CDs. I handed him funky blues, because that is my favorite. I would go to sleep at 10:00 pm and he would play bass until 3 o' clock in the morning.
HEAR YE: So, when did you start to put the band together?
MM: We didn't really get the band together until 2009. In April of 2008, I started looking on Craigslist for bands. It felt weird, because I thought I was past all that, but this was just like starting over. I just wanted to sing again. I had tried out for some cover band in Santa Rosa, the bass player/band leader said that I was "one of the best singers" he had ever heard, but then hired someone else who lived closer. Another cover band told me I was too "old." I was starting to realize that I might have to hit the karaoke bars - then I came across this band Powers That Be in the East Bay. They had lost their singer due to personal issues - she had some sort of
family obligations and reluctantly left the band. I started practicing
with them and learning their originals, sort of a jazzy/jamband thing,
not exactly what I was looking for - but I figured it was better than not
singing at all. That is how I met Pat Duffey. I wasn't really too thrilled with the overall musicianship or the material with the rest of the band, but I just love the way Pat plays guitar, he has so much heart and soul. So I kept going back. And Pat had such a wonderful attitude. After every rehearsal, he would
come up to me and say the kindest things, he made me feel so
appreciated. The other guys, not so much. That said, I'm a great believer in expressing gratitude for what I have, so I was sure to tell the band every time we got together how good it felt to play in a band again with guys who actually wanted to rehearse! I hadn't had that since Gregg's Eggs, and had been gigging for so long with pro players who have to gig constantly to make ends meet, so most can only show up for a paid gig.
HEAR YE : That seems to be the Catch 22
MM : Yes, only the strong survive! Anyway, I rehearsed with PTB for a couple of months and I needed some cash, so I booked us a couple of gigs in Horizons, which used to be the old Trident. I think this was July of 2008. Well, their former singer showed up at the gig and started telling me and everyone else how she really missed the guys, etc. and then for the next two weeks, I get these email messages that we have no rehearsal, no one is returning my phone calls, and I'm still trying to reluctantly learn these original tunes that I'm not really feeling. This was a challenge, because I wanted to sing and loved the way Pat plays guitar, but I didn't want to sing these songs. (Actually, it was a lot like the Greggs Eggs scenario, for different reasons.) But then I get this call from the keyboard player, who tells me that the old singer wanted to come back, they never wanted her to leave, so they've been trying to decide about this for two weeks no one had the nerve to tell me - they thought I would be crushed! He said, "she's back and that's just the way it is!" I cracked up laughing, and told him "Wow, why did you wait two weeks to tell me this? No problem!" I was relieved, more disappointed that I wasted my time trying to learn their tunes than anything else.
At the very moment I started feeling bummed about not playing music with Pat anymore, my phone rang. It was Pat! He tells me "Those guys are crazy! I quit - let's start a band together!" So I went home and told Arne what had happened. Arne was hopping mad - he said "This is the last straw - we're starting a blues band, Pat will play guitar, I will play bass and that is the end of that!" I
thought he had lost his mind. Six months prior, we had been forced to close
down our business, neither of us had an income - we were flat broke and about to lose out house. He was adamant, so I reluctantly said "Allright." I took a look at the stack of CDs on his amp - Albert King, BB King, Freddie King.
Loving irony, sarcasm and word play, I
suggested the name "Livin' Like Kings."
He got the joke and said, " How about 'Mari Mack & Livin'
Like Kings'?
I said "Ok, whatever." So there you have it. Sometimes I need to pinch myself.
HEAR YE : Indeed. So, how did you come to meet the other Kings' players?
MM: I met Doug Rowan, our main sax man, in North Beach many years ago - he played with me in Cookin' School. He plays in a bunch of bands in the Bay Area. Rhumba Bums, Bud E Love.
I met Rob at Local Music Vibe coffee meet up at Aroma in San Rafael. We tried out a bunch of drummers, but he has a lot of versatility and the right attitude.
HEAR YE : And Herman, your keyboard player?
MM: Herman joined us quite by lucky accident! Arne got a call on 4th of July 2010, to play a gig in Dunphy Park - Ben Trumbo, who plays with Curtis Lawson, was in a bind - their bass player never showed up for a gig - so he called him in a panic. Ironically, we had just come home from there - so he threw his rig in the car and went. When another keyboard player decided he "wasn't the guy" who could be a King, Arne called Herman. I think fate might have played a hand in that one, because his website is KingHerman.com
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MARI MACK : Vocals : Mari is a powerhouse singer who can belt out the blues or soothe you with soft, sultry tone. Her new band, Livin' Like Kings, is a seven piece horn driven unit that delivers the excitement that Mari has written into her original songs and the blues and soul covers from the various “Kings” of that genre. Her latest album, “Can’t Go Back”, featuring the single “Birthday Suit” features the performances of some of the Bay Area’s finest musicians including Alan Hertz and Eric Levy from Garaj Mahal, Ernest Carter, John Lee Sanders, and two cuts with the band Sonia Dada, a soulful gospel/rock group from Chicago who were recording their album in Sausalito during the production of “Can’t Go Back”. "Can't Go Back is currently available for preview streaming and download at iTunes and http://marimack.bandcamp.com . Mari Mack FAQ
--- LIVIN' LIKE KINGS
PAT DUFFEY : Guitar : Pat is a guitarist who has been performing, touring and teaching in the bay area for many years. His styles range from Classical to Jazz, Blues and Metal. He has toured with The Imperials, Two Tons of Fun, DNZ, Mary Monday, Spectrum, Willie and the Wild Bunch, Patrice Banks (Chocolate), Bridge, The Sheets, Uncle Funky’s Flying BBQ Circus, Peter Kaukonen, The Acoustic Hamsters, Soul Inheritance, Lucia Comnes, and now, Mari Mack. During his career, he has shared the stage with Bob Marley and Wailers, Earth Wind and Fire, Automatic Man, Booker T. and the MG’s, Tower of Power, Sylvester, Stanley Clark, The Neville Brothers, Johnny Taylor, He has recorded with Bill Summers and Summers Heat, Private Eye, Tiggy Clay, Bridge, Pharaoh Saunders, Bobby Womack, Ray Obeido, Will Kennedy, Rick Stevens & Lucia Comnes.
A highlight of Pat’s career was jamming with Tony Williams, Eric McCain and Bruce Harris in an audition for the New Lifetime. No, he didn’t get the gig, but what fun!
Pat continues to record, perform and teach in the bay area. He performs on a regular basis with his wife Billie and in an eclectic duo of acoustic light and sound.
Pat is very happy to be performing with Mari Mack and Livin Like Kings. "This band ROCKS" is King Patrick's Royal Declaration.
HERMAN EBERITZSCH : KEYBOARDS : click here for more info on King Herman
ARNE FRAGER - BASS : Click here for more biography
RJ FRANCO : DRUMS : began his formal music education in Detroit, Michigan at the age of twelve. He studied drums with Berklee faculty alum. Gene Stuart for four years. From age 16, RJ performed with a number of Detroit based blues and r&b bands and hung out with Motown session drummers Uriel Jones and Benny Benjamin. He later attended Michigan State University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. At MSU he studied composition, arranging, mallet instruments and trapset with faculty percussionist Mark Johnson.
After moving to San Francisco, RJ studied privately with renowned Bay Area drum maestro Chuck Brown and drummer/recording artist George Marsh. He studied North Indian Classical Music and Tabla for three years with master musicians Ali Akbar Khan, Allah Rakha and Zakir Hussain at the famed Ali Akbar College of Music. He also studied African, Afro-Cuban, Caribbean, and Brazilian percussion with master percussionist/composer Kenneth Nash. Among his many accomplishments, RJ was a featured soloist with the International Ballet Folklorio and was a percussionist with DIGA, a group led by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.
RJ divides his time recording, performing, and teaching trap drums/percussion. He has a teaching studio in San Anselmo, California and has co-billed with a number top name artists and groups including Chuck Berry, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Neil Young, Edgar Winter, Johnnie Winter, Jefferson Starship and Grateful Dead.
DOUG ROWAN: SAX Doug is the A List for saxophone and horn arranging in the Bay Area.
