Mark Valdes' MARIONETTE

Evan Abounassar - Trumpet

Jon Hatamiya - Trombone

Isaiah Harwood - Piano

Dario Bizio - Bass

Mark Valdes - Drums

Mark Valdes is a drummer and composer based in New York City. His musicianship is guided by one simple belief: who he is in a room is inseparable from what he plays in it. He approaches the instrument as a place to listen — searching moment to moment for what will serve the music and the people around him. On the drums, this translates to a sound that is clear, articulate, dynamic, and built on a synthesis of what he describes as the dancer and the boxer: in constant motion around the pulse, but present and fearless. His feel is as wide as it is narrow. His tone is as calm as it is intense.

Valdes grew up in Los Angeles, where he began playing the drums at age 13 and came up through the city's jazz education scene. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Peter Erskine and Aaron Serfaty. Outside of the classroom, he spent the final years of drummer James Gadson's life by his side — not as a student, but as family. There, he learned how to carry himself as a person, and to believe he was somebody. In the years since, he has gone on to complete his Master of Music in Jazz Studies at the New England Conservatory, studying under Nasheet Waits and Billy Hart. Since relocating to the East Coast, he has performed at festivals including the Panama Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival, and BRIC Festival, and has shared the stage with musicians such as Tim Berne, Joe Morris, and Miles Okazaki.

Valdes is a founding member of FUGITIVE, a New York-based quartet led by pianist Jonathan Paik. Featuring bassist Shogo Yamagishi and vocalist Harrison Clark, the group moves through the borderlands of jazz, experimental hip-hop, and surrealist lyricism. FUGITIVE performs regularly around the United States and recently released their debut album, Live at The Jazz Gallery. Captured in a single live set, the record moves through psychedelic instrumental solos, driving rap verses, hypnotic chants, and deep ballads that melt together and apart in every direction.

Valdes also co-leads Tabula Rasa with trumpeter Joey Curreri. The quintet, all born and raised in Los Angeles, is rounded out by saxophonist Devin Daniels, pianist Jonathan Paik, and bassist Dario Bizio. Named for the idea that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and that all knowledge is derived from experience and perception, the group makes music through connection and without preconceived notion. Their chemistry reflects years of friendship and each member's unique compositional voice. Tabula Rasa regularly tours the West Coast, performing at venues including Sam First in Los Angeles, The Sound Room in Oakland, Townhouse in Venice, and The Blank Slate in San Diego.

For Valdes, music is less a career than a form of proof — evidence of a thread connecting all people to something larger than any one of them. That thread can be felt as strongly on a record from decades past as in a room full of strangers today.

Beyond the music, he spends much of his time in the quieter pursuit of knowing himself: reading, sitting with what he finds in nature, and returning again and again to the idea that acceptance of who you already are is what makes real presence — in music and in life — possible.