(Talia Antoinette) Toni Marcus

Tropic Appetites was sort of Carla Bley's Escalator over the Hill's successor in a much less sprawling way - Tropic Appetites doesn't have a lot of overt drone elements but has a lot to recommend it - for me the presence of Julie Tippetts on vocals is reason enough to own anything (I have Working Week records!), but there's also some blistering (anonymous) Gato Barbieri playing - also on the record is a viola player called Toni Marcus who I'm guessing is the same as Antoinette Marcus who has been credited as a later member of LaMonte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music but no one seems to know anything about her.

Talia is giggin', teaching and developing a unique music community on Whidbey Island at Click Music in Oak Harbor, WA. She can be reached (360)675-5544.


Under the name, Richard Youngstein, i was active during the 60's-80's in nyc avante circles and played with the amazing toni marcus many times; including her being guest artist with my "erotic zone" ensemble for several radio performances under the guidance of michael cuscuna out here in LA around 1988 or so. She has "morphed" into Talia Toni Marcus and I'd sure love to know how to reach her. Blessings to all. noahzarc1030@yahoo.com
[Dr. Noah Young]

This "Toni Marcus" sounds like the Toni Marcus who appeared with Jack Benny on his TV show, who performed with him at the old Carousel theater-in-the-round in West Covina, California, and who attended UC Riverside in 1967.


Talia Antoinette "Toni" Marcus (violin, viola)

Talia Toni Marcus, a concert violinist and composer, has composed for film, television and theatre, and recorded with numerous outstanding classical, jazz and rock performers.

Her classical training and improvisational skills have been influenced by studies with Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Pran Nath and time spent in the Jazz & Rock music world. She received "Most Valuable Player of the Year Award" for her work with Van Morrison in the late 70's including the CD "Into the Music".

She has recorded and played with musicians as various as Pavarotti, Kenny G., Ornette Coleman, Jermaine Jackson, Carla Bley's Jazz Composers Orchestra, La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, The New American Orchestra, Alvin Curran, Robbie Basho (in his Visions of the Country album) and was the featured soloist on the film score for "An Officer and a Gentleman" with Richard Gere.

Talia has received artist-in-residence grants from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, Scuola Sperimentale in Rome, and American Student Center in Paris.

Toni Marcus lived in Italy in '70s and she played actively in Rome, as a free-lance avantgarde and progressive session-woman and at several concerts here with Alan Sorrenti and David Jackson of Van der Graaf Generator in 1973.

Yes! She also played her violin with Alan Sorrenti, Tony Esposito and Francis Monkman in Alan's second album on Harvest - "Come un vecchio incensiere all'alba in un villaggio deserto".

I was intrigued in seeing her nice face on Carla Bley's "Tropic Appetite" disc I listened to, yesterday evening and...

Voilà!

I saw her playing alive in Padua at an avantgarde, electro-acoustic music concert... maybe in the same evening played Charlemagne Palestine and Alvin Curran, with her drone, Tony Conrad-like violin.

It was 1972 or 1973... eons ago.

The above infos came from the Web, with some adding, here and there, on my part (Alvin Curran, Alan Sorrenti, Robbie Basho...), but she was, like a musical elf, always "there" at the right moment... also playing in a piece with late Robbie Basho on his first Windham Hill record, "Vision of the Country" disc, the one with the beautiful Ansel Adams' b/w picture, was great.

I'm jealous she met Robbie (and many, many others...) during her (musical) life and career and happy she's still well alive and kickin' and playing... Toni Marcus' related sites

Ciao Toni;-)