Mark Craney RIP

Of course I'll repeat what everyone else has stated: very sad news and Gino Vannelli's 'Brother To Brother' was a very influential album for me (as well as many others) when I discovered it in my formative years - early 80's.

A little story: I was visiting relatives in the San Francisco area in the summer of 1988 when I read about the benefit for Mark Craney to be held the upcoming weekend at the Hollywood Guitar Center. I took a bus from S.F. the night before and arrived in LA very early that morning. I got to the Guitar Center and stood in what would be the front of the line to get into the parking lot where the event was being held. While waiting to get in, I saw Jeff Porcaro walk up and buy tickets for himself and two boys. Also, Vinnie Colaiuta drove into the lot in a beat up Toyota wagon or something.

The staging had everyone's actual set-up in two rows. The top row from left to right (if I recall correctly) was Vinny Appice, Carmine Appice, Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Steve Smith. The bottom row (front of stage) was Rudy Richman (played with 80's group Lone Justice at the time), Gregg Bissonette, percussionist Mike Fisher, Myron Grombacher, and Ricky Lawson. Each played solo for a few minutes and then all of them together for the finale. I remember being at the front of the stage in, I'm guessing, a sea of PIT students and everyone murmuring about getting then student Enzo Todesco up to play. Kind of a correlation to Craney since Todesco ended up playing with Gino Vannelli later (esp. on the excellent Live In Montreal CD).

Mark made an appearance and I believe he was in a wheel chair at the time because of complications from all the treatments he had been going through. Anyway, it was an exciting time for me to see these great players come together for one of their own. Just another example of the camaraderie in the drum community and respect for one of their peers.

I came across an interview Mark did for Rhythm magazine in 1990 - a very interesting read, especially Mark's personal upate link at the top of the page. Here's the address:
www.rth1.com/markcraney/rhythm.htm

The article and update personify Craney's incredible career as well as his outlook on life during his battle/recovery from his illness. Very inspirational.