Trivia/Time Machine Mugstalga

MARK LEACH BIOGRAPHY
By Karenelle

Okay, it's alright if you tell me,"I don't really pay too much attention to keyboard players. They are always in the back sitting down behind a big box and I can hardly hear them anyway!
For those of you who have somehow missed MARK LEACH-aka-"MUGGIE DOO" rippin' the roof off the sucker for the last thirty plus years, that's understandable. But for those of us who have been there in the audience watching Muggie, we see it a little differently.He's spinnin, dancin and clowning at the helm of his 1940 high-rise HAMMOND ORGAN, and playing licks that's got our jaws dropped open like Lil' Abner's first trip to New York,
and makin sure you hear it!
Performing and recording with artists like George Duke, Chuck Rainy, Greg Allman,Peter Frampton, Robert Lockwood Jr., Buddy Miles, Tommy Shannon, Chris Leyton, Bobby rock, Steve Smith,  Barry Whites' "White Heat", Cornell Dupree, Bruce Hornsby,Johnny Taylor,  Buzzy Lindheart, Dick Dale,The Fabulous Techniques, Brian Auger, Frank Sinatra Jr., and the like, Mark has definitely been leaving his "Mark" on the live music industry for many years. With well over 3300 national and international performances Muggie is not too hard for you to find on the music scene. **____________________
Muggie, born Mark William Leach May 17th, 1957 to parents Leon Thomas and Suzanne Morgan Leach (organist and singer respectively),was raised surrounded by music. Mark the youngest of two children, began playing organ at two years old and hasn't let up yet. "I think I started playing" he said "because my dad worked so much that when he was finally done each night, he'd always go to the organ to unwind". So when it was time to play with him,  he would just put me on his lap at the organ and show me stuff. When he was at work, I'd stand up and play over my head cause I was too short to see the keys. I guess thats why I've always kept standing at the boards". He also started playing trumpet after older brother Joseph decided to give up the instrument and concentrate on bodybuilding.
At 9 years old Mark started playing his 1918 Buescher trumpet and a borrowed Conn portable organ with Cleveland area soul bands and gospel groups. On July 10,1973 Muggie got his first "PROFESSIONAL" lesson from none other than the legendary DUKE ELLINGTON .
Muggie recalls, "My grandmother, also a pianist and church organist, had bought us tickets to see Duke at the Admiral King Auditorium. I must have stayed awake for two or three days waiting for that day to get there. I remember walking into the place and how overwhelming it was to know I was in the same building with the Duke. It was the first real concert I'd ever been to and Duke Ellington was probably the only idol I'd ever had by that age.
"He came out and they played for nearly two and a half hours, hitting arrangements that were blowin' my mind. His playing style was so smooth and rich ,,I was in complete awe." At the end of the
show my grandma just looked at me and said, 'Well, are you ready to meet him ?' I remember saying ," I don't think you can go backstage unless you know him, mainly because I was scared to death at the thought." She just smiled and said 'Grandma knows everybody' , and off behind the curtains we went.
"The next thing I know I'm standing there shaking Big Duke's hand and he's flipping my hands over top to bottom looking at them. ,,,,'You play keyboards, don't you ?' he asked. For as long as I can remember I had always played, but I had never heard an organ or piano called a keyboard before. To me that was just a part of the instrument, like the pedals or the legs.

Anyway, for the next half-hour or so he stuffed my head full of chord expansions, boogie woogie bass lines,using horn lines on the piano,and hippin me to rhythmic chops that I never even knew existed, on the "Keyboard". Muggie Laughs, "I was officially a "Keyboard Player !!".
"....I was always an 'up on top ' player and I think he got a kick out of trying to show me how to get behind a groove and support it instead of trying to pull it ahead of it's natural flow. That was my first realization
that music is not only the notes you play, but also the ones you have the ear not to".
The Duke was scheduled to return to Cleveland on February 9th of the Upcomming year and Mark was determined to have some serious improvements to his playing ready for Ellington to critique upon his return. Sadly, the February 9th concert was canceled because of Duke's illness which led to his death on May 24, 1974. " I would never be able to thank him enough for pointing me in the right direction and for the inspiration he has given me over the years" Leach says. .
At 15 years old, during a "Battle of the Bands" at Ohio's Oberlin College, Leach was recruited by the 1970's 16 piece child prodigy band "The FABULOUS TECHNIQUES" (also the stage band for 1973's miss
Ohio ).________________ It was then that Mark switched from trumpet and farfisa organ to the HAMMOND ORGAN and (now) vintage synthesizers. Finally giving in to much unwanted pressure of the management and band members, Muggie began singing.
____________ In the mid 70's ,Mark was one of many R&B based artists implementing sensual vocal harmonies, live horns, latin stylings, funky percussive organ rythyms, and going for a full dress stage show. Broadening your horizon was then the order of the day and on the northcoast, Muggie and the Techniques were taking full advanvantage of the moment. Doing warm ups for groups including The Ojays, Larry Graham, The Moments, The Barkays and performing with Ohio gospel and latin groups Muggie was coming into his own. Now co/band leader and partner with the Fab. Techs' founder,Bassist GEORGE MOYE, they down-sized and relocated in Tampa, Florida. It was their time to take advantage of the upsurging live music craze there (due, at least in part to the rise of Florida's favorite son K.C. and the SUNSHINE BAND.__________
In 1977,Muggie, George,and vocalist VITO TRANKITA, invested all of the groups' profits and personal savings into a "too good to be true" real estate venture on Tampa's Alfia river. Within several months they were faced with the fact that they had been conned out of everything but their car and instruments. The seller didn't even own the property and of course was no where to be found when all hit the fan!! On a forty dollar loan the group headed back to Ohio and within a matter of days disbanded the Techniques. Muggie, probably to mask his fury over the turn of events, began to go at his music with a vengeance all his own._______________
"Yeah I guess I was pretty angry at the time" says Muggie. "I knew I had something different in my music and I was determined to put it to work. I started takin' every keyboard gig I could find and sometimes I'd be with six or seven groups at a time, doin' ten or twelve shows some weeks. In a way I suppose the anger was a good thing because it made me start really hittin' and roughhousing the organ. The rougher I got, the more it got over with the crowds. Plus it was giving me just the sound I'd been lookin for all along." It also gave him quite a few repair bills for broken keys!__________
In December of that year Mark joined " THE DANNY COCCO REVIEW " as arranger/keyboardist and soon recorded their first album "LADY OF THE STAGE" at Cleveland Recording, now SUMA recording. Spotted in the studio by vocalist WILLIE MARQUEZ and Producer DIEGO MARTINEZ, he was hired to do an album with the Latin rock group LOS NOMBRES who were scheduled to record the very next week. Leach was left alone to improvise through the entire set of sessions with no rehearsal. The ball was rolling now..

Winter of "78" brought Mark his first "road Gig" as Organist and left hand bass for KEITH RANSOM'S "The" LITTLE BIG BAND" Formerly "RED TOP AND THE RED RYDERS. Traveling the east coast, mid-west and southern states doing Holiday and Ramada Inn circuits and private clubs Leach was in his element. Muggie was an instant road dog and to date finds himself at his happiest keeping on the road performing.
It was on the road with Keith, Guitarist JOHN COCHRAN, and vocalist MARLENE GRAHAM that he started working out with Bruce Hornsby in Va. Beach, Va. trading ideas and grabbing licks from each others styles. "To me , Bruce was and still is one of the strongest Jazz pianists I've seen," Muggie says. "He amazed me when, after not seeing him for years he hits the scene with a whole new feel ,now out of the jazz vein and climbing the charts!!"
______Muggie left the group in 1980 and through the rest of the decade he worked with his own groups, "THE MARK LEACH PROJECT ","THE FLIPSIDE SHOW BAND" with" THE STREET GIRLS" and toured extensively with Atlanta's "HEAVY TRAFFIC". Starting in the late 80's and to date Mark has worked often with" D.C. CARNES" and the "CONTINENTALS". D.C. is currently Guitarist with " THE ROBERT LOCKWOOD "ALL STARS",and is still active with The "Continentals.
DOUG JOHNS(then bassist for Heavy Traffic)Drummer CHRIS CEJA(formerly with NEIL ZAZA) and Muggie also began in the early 80's working as" THE THING", a jazz/funk/rock group doing live shows and college radio in the northeast. The trio is now in their 18th year, renamed "HAMPSTERFISH" and have just recorded a new release slated for distribution in late July.
Throughout the early 90's Muggie put his talents to work with Neil Zaza performing and recording on the "SING" album and the "LIVE" CD. Sharing billing with STEVE HACKETT(GENISIS), ASIA, ACE FREELY, and other rockers, Muggie was honing a sharp rock feel to blend with his funk Lazz and soul skills. During this period, Mark was also musical director for powerhouse guitarist RIKI HENDRIX until their last performance @ Bethel "97", the original site of Woodstock. It was was an offer from Riki that put Muggie and now long time partner BUDDY MILES on the stage together for the first time. Muggie recalls, " We were just closing up a rehersal at my home studio when out of the blue Riki asks me,"Hey Muggie, you think you might want to do the Return of " THE BAND OF GYPSYS" show in Tulsa with me and Bud next month?". All I remember saying at the time was "yeah sure" but thinking to myself, there's no keyboards in the Band Of Gypsys. "There was no way I was going to end up playing at a Band of Gypsys gig with Buddy Miles". Mark points out, "You have to keep in mind ever since I heard Buddy, I have been the biggest Buddy fan on the planet!"
I used to style my look and aggressive playing directly from trying to emulate Buddy all though my younger playing years. The afro ,the Top-hats even the way I sing all were 'Buddy driven'. "Hey , just look at all my old promos. I wanted to be like the best and Buddy Miles was and still is THE BEST."
Soon Muggie received a call from Buddy's then manager, Robert Fitzpatrick. Mark was to pick up Bud in Pittsburgh and fly out from Ohio two days later for the Tulsa Performance. After The opening night of the Return Of the Band Of Gypsys gig Buddy asked Muggie to join the Buddy Miles Express. Two days later Mark was on the road again, now with the legendary one himself! The rest is history steady gettin' made by the bucketful. Muggie Doo, now the longest standing member/co-band leader of the BUDDY MILES EXPRESS is bringing the Hammond B3 to your town, your country with a trail of fire behind it!
As George Duke put it at a performance at Rhythms in Cleveland's Playhouse Square with Muggie as special guest, "Mark Leach! That's what entertainment's about !" As Buddy says of the Express "I think Mark has been our biggest inspiration" That means the world to Muggie Doo, coming from his own "Biggest Inspiration."
Muggie currently tours with Buddy and The Express, The Bluesberries and can sometimes be caught With ROBERT LOOCKWOOD Jr. and His Allstars in the Cleveland-Pittsburg area. The New release(May 7th) of" BUDDY MILES "THE BLUES BERRIES " CD produced by Jim Gaines, with guitarist Rocky Athas,Chris Leyton and Tommy Shannon of Stevie Ray Vaughans' Double Trouble is sure to get to the heart of international blues lovers. . Look for upcoming Bluesberries tourdates this year. Buddy , Muggie and the Express have also teamed up with" CHER" and Tina Wesson(CBS Survivor Winner) and have released a new CD to benefit the Childrens Cranio-facial Foundation. This one is a "Must Have" for you and for the kids who are so much in need of your support.
Keep an eye out for yet another new release this year of the debut "Halfway to Cleveland" CD. This recording features BILLY YATES(Outlaws Guitarist),KIM MASSEY(vocals),hARPO DeROMA(harp),DOUG JOHNS(bass),Buddy Miles (vocals),Chris Ceja(drums), Muggie in a power Blues Rock format.
Look for Muggie on tour IN 2007 WITH the long awaited " UNITED STATES ALL STARS", a nationwide unit soon to boast members from every state in the union.The "ALL STARS" will begin it's 2007 concert series in July, bringing to the stage a blend of Rock, Blues, Jazz and Funk that is sure to make you a die-hard fan.
If you haven't seen or heard Muggie yet, it's time to get to the box office cause he's coming to throw down and believe me , you'll want to be around!