Mark Alexander Dimond, baptised like Markolino by his colleagues at the time, was born in 1950 (1950-1986).

He was American and lived with his mother and older sister in the Lower East Side to the southest of the Big Apple.

His mother was a social worker from the New York City Welfare Department and his sister was a college student. Markolino always talked about his father. He said he was a black Cuban named Dimond, but none of his classmates and friends at the time knew him.

Mark studied some music as a child, but he was mainly self-taught. He could read music and write scores. He just had to listen to a song or touch the paper once to learn it forever. However, from his adolescent era, he was into drugs, particularly heroin.

While dealing with drugs, Markolino was unable to control himself. Andy Harlow told all of this, one of his friends since they began working together in his Sextet in 1966, thanks to the management of Ismael Miranda, neibor and Markolino’s friend.

Album: The Alexander Review.

Year: 1975

Label: VAYA Records

Catalog: # VS46

By the year 1975, Mark Alexander Dimond (Markolino) embarked on a musical project entitled “The Alexander Review”, accompanied by musicians such as Ray Maldonado, Eddie “Guagua” Rivera, Andy Harlow, and Barry Rogers.

In this album, Markolino writes and sings the songs in a production categorized under a musical genre called Funk/Soul & Funk-Disco.

The album apparently was not well accepted by music critics, but it shows us another musical facet of who is considered by many to be one of the best pianists from the phenomenon called salsa.

It should be recalled that Markolino does not come from a Latino home, so he was likely to be by non-Latin music such as Jazz, Funk/Soul, Disco, or perhaps Country Music in his childhood and early youth.

Someday, someplace it happened that Mark Alexander decided to venture into salsa music and how well he did so, becoming one of, if not the best salsa brava pianists with NYC’s sound.

Dimond was a gift given to the Latin music world, taken from the African American atmosphere and put to play with the greatest salsa luminaries.

Too bad he was a victim of personal decisions taken in his life, which caused him to leave this world at a very young age.

 I only use one word to describe Mark Alexander. A “Genius” and a great gratitude for what he left us musically speaking, which is a treasure that we deeply appreciate to this day.

(Although this musical work was not very well accepted and created by Markolino for the Anglo public, I review him as a historical piece for this great pianist’s contribution to music), Markolino definitely never ceases to surprise us.

 Credits

 Backing Vocals – Alex Reyes, Fay Feller, Mark Alexander Dimond

 Bass – Clyde Bullard, Eddie Rivera

 Congas – Azzedin Weston

 Drums – Buddy Williams

 Engineer – Jon Fausty

Guitar – Jimmy Lopez

Piano, Clavinet, Synthesizer [Moog], Lead Vocals – Mark Alexander Dimond

Producer, Arranged By – Mark Alexander

Saxophone – Andy Harlow, Robin Kenyatta

Saxophone [Baritone] – Bill Marmando

Trombone – Barry Rogers, Bill Ohashi, Tom Malone

 Trumpet – Danny Reyes, Ray Maldonado, Tom Malone

 Written-By – M. Alexander

Home

Ayumi was born in Japan She graduated from the Faculty of Percussion, Tokyo College of Music.

Ayumi was born in Japan. She plays Latin percussion, Classic percussion, Marimba & Vibraphone.

At the college; she began to study percussion in earnest mainly with classic music and gained experience of ensemble in orchestras, brass bands, musicals, operas, etc.

Ayumi “Azucar” Suzuki She plays Latin percussion.

At the same time, she started to organize concerts and participate as percussionist, keyboard percussionist or drummer.

She has been also teaching  eurythmics at a nursery school.

In 2015, she started her own band, “Ayumania” that features mostly her original compositions and arrangements, where she fuses Japanese atmosphere into Latin rhythm.

Inviting both Japanese and foreign guests, she has been organizing live concerts in various places in Tokyo.

In July 2017, she released her first album “Oukagekka” in Japan. It has been promoted in overseas radio programs in Colombia, Puerto Rico and New York.

The Japanese vibraphonist, timbalera, composer and arranger Ayumi Suzuki launches her Ayumania debut, a musical production recorded between Tokyo and Los Angeles that includes 7 original numbers – composed and arranged by Suzuki herself – and two covers: Maria Cervantes de Noro Morales and Mi Amore by Naoya Matzuoka. In this album, Ayumi’s speech establishes a bridge between classical and contemporary Cuban music, with different rhythmic touches and influences that have marked his background as an instrumentalist.

Sakura, a beautiful instrumental melody composed by Suzuki herself, highlights Chiho “Isabel” Saito on the violin, as well as Hiromishi “Yan” Tsugaki on the keyboards, and of course, Suzuki on the marimba and the vibraphone.

Ring Loop is a cadenciosa are montuno with outstanding participation of Takashi Nakazato in the congas; La Lluvia, vocalized by the Cuban Julian “El Pillo” Tapia, presents the solos of Mitsuru Tanaka and Ayumi on the trumpet and vibraphone, respectively.

Knock Knock Knock is a festive cut that builds bridges with Caribbean music, particularly calypso, and salsa and in which Ayumi herself punches the timpani and a mind-blowing one in the marimba.

Saredo Danzon, as the name implies, is a danzon that opens with a solo by Hiromichi Tsugaki on the piano while Umihotaru, with vocals by Julian “El Pillo” Tapia, is an afro rhythm in 6/8 with the intervention of Hiromichi Tsugaki (fender rhodes) and Ludwig Esteban Nuñez (drums).

Suzuki offers a tribute to Noro Morales in his legendary composition of Maria Cervantes. In this piece we hear the participation of Jimmy Branly in the drums and an overwhelming solo of Ayumi in his vibraphone, with that way of playing that only she has.

Branly himself performs the drums in the last two pieces;Suzuki achieves a premium opera that honors her at the rumberos school.

With sophisticaded arrangements. with the elegance and the street necessary to position it is as one of the most

outstanding salseras of the international level. It wil surely be one of the best productions of this 2017.

Ayumania

A modern and contemporary material, original and unusual, is the one that establishes this Japanese multi-instrumentalist Ayumi Suzuki, establishing different arrangements and touches to each theme, this Japanese vibraphonist, timbalera player, composer and arranger establishes a thin line between Cuban music and modern, going through bold and effective rhythmic domains.

A material that consists of 7 original songs, two covers and all under the baton of Ayumi.

Sakura emerges with a flow of wind sounds with minor percussions that make the environment conducive to an eclectic and harmonious journey, one of the fundamental pieces to understand the musical transculturation of this talented woman, the violin solo by Chiho “Isabel” Saito and the keyboards by Hiromishi “Yan” Tsugaki and the marimba and vibraphone by the emblematic Ayumi stand out.

A son montuno can not be missing in this material, Anillo De Lazo where a congas solo by Takashi Nakazato stands out, La Lluvia, a song that already rolls through the wide world of the networks in which the voice of Julián Tapia can be appreciated, the trumpet of Mitsuru Tanaka and the vibraphone of the great Ayumi, undoubtedly a 5 star material, a musical base and instrumentalist of first line that give the incomparable recognition to the musical talent of this great artist and in conjunction with the band.