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Photo by Jean Bremy

"Mark Stein. This is the man that is mostly responsible for whatever musical knowledge I have today if only indirectly, and even though I only relatively recently met him. I first saw Mark in 1967 with Vanilla Fudge. Mark's extremely passionate vocals, and performances on the Hammond organ were mesmerizing, compelling, and contagious. His performances compelled me to learn the keyboards, or more specifically, the Hammond organ, even though I'm mainly a bass player.

I developed my ear by dissecting his works day, after day, after day. This devotion finally helped me to land a gig as organist with Vince Martell's band 35 years later. I'm still with Vince's band, and though I'm playing bass for him now, I was able to perform Mark's music on organ with one of his old band mates.

Mark's talents go far beyond singing and the Hammond organ to other keyboards such as piano, synths and also composing and arranging. He performs as passionately today as he did 35 years ago. His attention to detail is amazing as was evident at a studio session I attended and finally meet him in 2003.

In 2006, I was able to jam with him.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Mark. If my talent is a small fraction of yours, I am happy. May you make music forever."

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