JONATHAN MARKS
Percussionist/DJ/Producer/Educator
ABOUT
Jonathan Marks began playing drums at the age of 5 after taking over a blue-sparkled Rogers kit his older brother received as a gift for Christmas. Before becoming a professional musician, he ventured through an obsession with heavy metal and Lars Ulrich as a youth, jazz, Afro-Cuban rhythms, Jeff Buckley, and J-Dilla in high school, and everything in between as a music composition and theory major at Princeton University.
He has since moved to Chicago where he performs regularly with the city's best rock, pop, latin, and jazz musicians. He co-founded the electro-synth-pop outfit Hey Champ, whose highlight performances include the main stage at Lollapalooza and tours with Lupe Fiasco and the Sounds. Jonathan took the throne as drummer for Grammy-nominated, acid-jazz sensation Liquid Soul for 3 years and is the first-call drummer for the Chicago Diamond Trio, winner of the 2014 Chicago Music Award in Jazz. His latest production/drumming project is Monakr, an electronic pop act signed to Embassy of Music in Germany that released their debut EP in January 2016. That same year, he would begin a 4-year stint with Minneapolis-based pop artist, Dessa, touring across North America in support of her album Sound the Bells.
Jonathan embraces the electronic side of music as well, working as a DJ/producer under the moniker Rogue Vogue. He has spun in clubs throughout the US and Europe and held residencies at such venues as Soho House Chicago and the Waldorf Astoria. Jonathan has channeled these passions for percussion and production into teaching outlets, conducting classes as a teaching artist for Columbia College's Community Schools Program over the last 12 years.
Jonathan has performed throughout the U.S. and in Canada, Europe, Russia, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Mexico. He has won a number of awards including an "Outstanding Performance" award from Downbeat magazine and the 2005 Ira Sachs Memorial Prize for Outstanding Musical Performance from Princeton University.
Dates
Videos!
Videos!
Monakr @ El Rey in Los Angeles
Heavy Weather (1977) - Tim Seisser Sextet with Arthur Wright
Dessa - "Warsaw/Velodrome"
CONTACT
Drop Jonathan a line, preferably regarding drums, analog gear, espresso, and/or tacos!