5/4 Mark Walker Late Night Jam Session

Live music is back on stage at The Mad Monkfish! For those who can't make it to the Jazz Baroness Room, Monkfish now streams live all of its performances on their Facebook page. House band plays a set and then invites guests to sit in on this late-night instrumentals jam.

Mark Walker, drums

Drummer, composer and educator Mark Walker has been one of the most respected names on the jazz scene for four decades. He has performed on five continents with some of the best musicians in the world and appears on over 75 recordings, including two Grammy Award-winning albums, four Latin Grammy-winning albums, seven Grammy-nominated albums and one Latin Grammy-nominated album.

Growing up in a family of artists in the urban jungle of Chicago’s Old Town in the 1960’s, Walker was exposed to a wide variety of music and art from an early age. He gravitated toward jazz in his teens, and was fortunate enough to hear many legends like Buddy Rich, Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey live. At age 16, he took his first lessons with the “Dean of Percussion,” Roy C. Knapp, whose students included Gene Krupa, Louie Bellson and Hal Blaine. Knapp’s lessons in music theory, harmony and percussion hit Walker like a lightning bolt, and inspired him to become a professional musician right out of high school.