Mark Alexander “Markolino” Dimond was a salsa pianist, arranger and composer born in Manhattan NYC in 1950. He was an outstandingly talented musician that, sadly, fell in the trap of drugs from a very young age. Perhaps his best-known credit is having been the pianist on Willie Colón’s sophomore album “The Hustler” from 1968, which included his composition “Guajirón”, featuring a solo still considered a classic among salsa pianists. He was also part of the band that recorded Héctor Lavoe’s 1975 solo album “La Voz” (“The Voice”), which includes the studio version of Lavoe’s major hit “Mi Gente”.

After being fired from Colón’s band, he started a solo project that resulted in the 1971 LP “Brujería” (“Witchcraft”), with seven songs entirely composed and arranged by him. Produced by Johnny Pacheco and Larry Harlow, with Justo Betancourt and Ismael Quintana on backing vocals. “Brujería” was not just Markolino’s solo project debut, but also a young Ángel Canales’ debut as salsa singer.

Six years later, with Dimond disappeared from the scene due to his heroin abuse, Ángel Canales (by then a successful solo singer) rereleased (not rerecorded) “Brujería” under his own name and with a different title: “Más Sabor”. Still, Dimond’s authorship of the songs that make up the album was respected.

Mark Dimond died in Miami of a neurosyphilis in 1986. Here you can hear “Aguardiente” (“Schnapps”) from an original 1977 US pressing of “Más Sabor”.

Numark TTXUSB turntable – Nagaoka MP-500 phono cartridge – ART DJPRE II phono stage preamp – Vinyl record vinilo LP