Mark Pender
Encyclopedia
Mark "The Loveman" Pender (born Kansas City
, Missouri
, August 21, 1957) is a trumpet
player and vocalist who has played with Southside Johnny
, Little Steven and Bruce Springsteen
. Since 1993 he has performed on Late Night With Conan O'Brien
and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
as a member of The Max Weinberg 7 and The Tonight Show Band. He is currently performing on Conan as a member of the Basic Cable Band. He is also a member of The Miami Horns
, leads his own band, The Mark Pender Band, and plays regularly with La Bamba & The Hubcaps.
As a member of The Miami Horns
he has toured and/or recorded with, among others Diana Ross
, Gary U.S. Bonds
, Joe Cocker
, Darlene Love
, Robert Cray
and Bon Jovi
. As an individual he has sessioned with David Bowie
, They Might Be Giants
, Buster Poindexter and Blackmore's Night
.
. In the mid 1970s, while still in Kansas City
, Pender played with Mass Transit and saxophonist Stephen Harvey. This band played a fusion of R&B, jazz
and disco
. He also played with the Inner City Orchestra from 1977 until 1979. This gave him the opportunity to play with the likes of Jay McShann
, Joe Turner
, Ella Fitzgerald
and Gladys Knight & the Pips
. He would also occasionally front the band on trumpet and vocals. Pender and Harvey also played regularly at the Mutual Musicians Foundation
. It was there they first met the jazz organist Charles Earland
. In 1979, Pender and Harvey accepted Earlands offer to join his touring band. The tour finished in Newark, New Jersey
. Pender opted to stay while Harvey returned to Kansas City where he was tragically murdered on November 5, 1980.
Once in New Jersey, Pender linked up with The Miami Horns
and toured with Diana Ross
between 1980 and 1981. He was invited to join Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul and while on tour with them in Paris, he met his current wife Francoise while still married to Connie his first wife who he married in Ft. Lee, NJ. Connie and Mark were married from 1982 - 1992. It was
Little Steven who nicknamed him The Love Man. He subsequently became a member of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
and led The Jukes' Horns on the albums Trash It Up, In The Heat and At Least We Got Shoes. In 1988, as part of the group The Tunnel Of Love Horns, he went on tour with Bruce Springsteen
. Pender continues to record with both Southside Johnny
and Springsteen and featured on the latter's 2005 album Devils & Dust
. He also played in the halftime show for NFL's Super Bowl XLIII
.
Pender also continues to play regularly with La Bamba & The Hubcaps, led by friend Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg. This band recorded an eponymous album in 1991 which gave Pender the chance to showcase his skills as a lead vocalist. He also linked up Max Weinberg
in the band Killer Joe. This band recorded one album, Scene Of The Crime, which featured Pender playing trumpet and singing lead vocal on a rousing rendition of "Chicken Shack Boogie." He also fronts The Mark Pender Band, playing a blend of R&B, jazz and funk, a reflection of his Kansas City roots. This band has featured both Rosenberg and Harrison in its line-up. In 2003, Pender independently released an eponymous CD/DVD package featuring live and studio recordings.
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, August 21, 1957) is a trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
player and vocalist who has played with Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny is an American singer-songwriter, who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.-Early days:...
, Little Steven and Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
. Since 1993 he has performed on Late Night With Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 as part of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise...
as a member of The Max Weinberg 7 and The Tonight Show Band. He is currently performing on Conan as a member of the Basic Cable Band. He is also a member of The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns are a horn section best known for touring and/or recording with Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven and The Max Weinberg 7. They have also toured, performed and/or recorded with, among others, Diana Ross, Gary U.S...
, leads his own band, The Mark Pender Band, and plays regularly with La Bamba & The Hubcaps.
As a member of The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns are a horn section best known for touring and/or recording with Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven and The Max Weinberg 7. They have also toured, performed and/or recorded with, among others, Diana Ross, Gary U.S...
he has toured and/or recorded with, among others Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
, Gary U.S. Bonds
Gary U.S. Bonds
Gary U.S. Bonds is an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer. He is also a prolific songwriter.-Career:...
, Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
, Darlene Love
Darlene Love
Darlene Love is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a #1 American single in 1962, and was part of the Phil Spector stable that produced a celebrated Christmas album in 1963....
, Robert Cray
Robert Cray
Robert Cray is an American blues guitarist and singer. A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has led his own band, as well as an acclaimed solo career.-Career:...
and Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
. As an individual he has sessioned with David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years Flansburgh and Linnell were frequently accompanied by a drum machine. In the early 1990s, TMBG became a full band. Currently, the members of TMBG are...
, Buster Poindexter and Blackmore's Night
Blackmore's Night
Blackmore's Night is an English-American traditional folk rock duo led by Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night .-Early:...
.
History
Mark Pender graduated in 1975 from Grandview Senior High School in Grandview, MissouriGrandview, Missouri
Grandview is a city in Jackson County, Missouri, United States. The population was 24,475 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Grandview is located at , along U.S...
. In the mid 1970s, while still in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Pender played with Mass Transit and saxophonist Stephen Harvey. This band played a fusion of R&B, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
. He also played with the Inner City Orchestra from 1977 until 1979. This gave him the opportunity to play with the likes of Jay McShann
Jay McShann
Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....
, Joe Turner
Joe Turner
Joe Turner is the name of:* Big Joe Turner , blues singer* Joe Turner , jazz/stride pianist* Joe Lynn Turner , rock musician* Joe Turner , English footballer...
, Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
and Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & The Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. The group was best known for their string of hit singles on Motown's "Soul" record label and Buddah Records from 1967 to 1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight...
. He would also occasionally front the band on trumpet and vocals. Pender and Harvey also played regularly at the Mutual Musicians Foundation
Mutual Musicians Foundation
Kansas City’s Local 627, the African-American Musicians Union, founded in 1917, and known as the Mutual Musicians Foundation, still stands in Kansas City, Missouri's historic 18th and Vine district at 1823 Highland Avenue....
. It was there they first met the jazz organist Charles Earland
Charles Earland
Charles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...
. In 1979, Pender and Harvey accepted Earlands offer to join his touring band. The tour finished in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. Pender opted to stay while Harvey returned to Kansas City where he was tragically murdered on November 5, 1980.
Once in New Jersey, Pender linked up with The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns are a horn section best known for touring and/or recording with Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven and The Max Weinberg 7. They have also toured, performed and/or recorded with, among others, Diana Ross, Gary U.S...
and toured with Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
between 1980 and 1981. He was invited to join Little Steven & The Disciples Of Soul and while on tour with them in Paris, he met his current wife Francoise while still married to Connie his first wife who he married in Ft. Lee, NJ. Connie and Mark were married from 1982 - 1992. It was
Little Steven who nicknamed him The Love Man. He subsequently became a member of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny is an American singer-songwriter, who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.-Early days:...
and led The Jukes' Horns on the albums Trash It Up, In The Heat and At Least We Got Shoes. In 1988, as part of the group The Tunnel Of Love Horns, he went on tour with Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
. Pender continues to record with both Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny
Southside Johnny is an American singer-songwriter, who usually fronts his band Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes.-Early days:...
and Springsteen and featured on the latter's 2005 album Devils & Dust
Devils & Dust
Devils & Dust is the 13th studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, and his third folk album . It was released on April 25, 2005 in Europe and on April 26 in the US...
. He also played in the halftime show for NFL's Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII
Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,...
.
Pender also continues to play regularly with La Bamba & The Hubcaps, led by friend Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg. This band recorded an eponymous album in 1991 which gave Pender the chance to showcase his skills as a lead vocalist. He also linked up Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
in the band Killer Joe. This band recorded one album, Scene Of The Crime, which featured Pender playing trumpet and singing lead vocal on a rousing rendition of "Chicken Shack Boogie." He also fronts The Mark Pender Band, playing a blend of R&B, jazz and funk, a reflection of his Kansas City roots. This band has featured both Rosenberg and Harrison in its line-up. In 2003, Pender independently released an eponymous CD/DVD package featuring live and studio recordings.