Mark
Vidito was born in Glendale CA on October 24, 1951 and grew up in the
San Fernando Valley, in the northern area of Los Angeles. He began
playing piano by ear when he was about five years old. He joined his
first band when he was about thirteen with neighborhood and school
friends Mark Hawkins - drums, Chris Packer – guitar and Paul McIntire –
bass guitar. Spawned by the British Invasion, all of them found ways to
acquire instruments and begin playing cover songs and discovering an
ability to write songs of their own. They played for school dances and
parties at friend’s homes calling themselves The Jades, a name derived
from Jade East, a popular cologne at the time. Another friend,
Joe
DiBlasi joined in on guitar and occasional accordion and
another friend Dan Nishimura replaced Mark Hawkins on drums and the
group became Chapter One. They graduated to a few home recordings and
one opportunity at a local music store but by 1967 they disbanded. Mark
found a number of friends over the next few years to work with including
the likes of John Crossen and
Chrys Berri, but didn’t perform regularly
during his high school years. After high school he worked for a short
time with Sing Out! San Fernando Valley, a local affiliate of the
nationally known
Up With People performing group. After that he
continued to do some casual work with great friend John Crossen and
another childhood buddy, Tom LaForge. Becoming an avid fan of
Linda
Ronstadt, Mark was led to a heightened familiarity with groups like the
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and
Poco and the then current work of
Rick
Nelson. While following Linda he became acquainted with her and her
band members
Gib Guilbeau and
John Beland. They left her employment to
pursue their own project as Swampwater which would introduce Mark to
Cajun influenced country music. He continued a strong fan relationship
with both Linda and Swampwater. Leading up to and during the live
recording sequences of her Capitol records LP “Linda Ronstadt”, he
became familiar with band members
Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Mickey McGee and
Richard Bowden. After hearing Richard perform “Mail Order Dog” and his
original “virgin” of “Big Bad John”, Mark came across Richard’s Shiloh
LP and familiarized himself with members of that band and at the same
time, started to become aware of the growing rather dysfunctional
contingent of musicians who were all working within the
folk-country-rock genre, especially in Southern California. Soon after
that Gib and Sneaky reformed the Flying Burrito Brothers and Mark was
able to gain backstage passes to some shows where he learned more about
the music of the Burritos. Mark did some writing but performed only
occasionally during most of the seventies. While working for a music
publisher in 1980, by chance, Mark supplied guitar and keyboard tracks
to a demo recording for a
Richard Leigh / Milton Blackford song while
visiting the company’s Nashville office. That song became a track on
the project Gib, John, Sneaky and Mickey were recording for Epic/Curb as
the Burrito Brothers. This came to light while Mark was visiting
backstage at the then famous Palomino Club in North Hollywood, CA,
during a Flying Burrito Brothers show that summer. A few months later
they gave Mark an opportunity to audition for the touring band which led
to Mark being hired as the keyboardist for the Burrito Brothers “Hearts
On The Line” tour in 1981. In late summer, Sneaky and
multi-instrumentalist-vocalist Charlie Harwood both left the band for
other projects and were replaced by
Skip Edwards and Richard Bowden. At
the end of the year, the band was dissolved and Gib and John relocated
to Nashville. Mark’s daughter had been born during the year and he
returned to working in the publishing business and focusing on family.
Over the next twenty some years, Mark performed casually with Burrito
veteran
Greg Harris and singer
Dan McCorison.
He contributed to recording and performing projects with old friend John Crossen and
drummer Kevin Wachs including LP's by John Day and Forever & A Day and
live shows with those acts as well as the
band Pacific. In the eighties, he engineered several song demo recordings for
CBS Songs, affording the opportunity to work with a number of talented
and well known songwriters and musicians
including
Ron Miller and
Ken Hirsch,
David Morgan,
Herb Pedersen,
Jay
Dee Maness,
Michael Bolton and
Gene Simmons. He
continued some
limited performing into the nineties with old friend Matt Margucci and another
band headed by Lud Grande. In the late nineties he began working with
the worship band at
First Presbyterian Church of Burbank which he continued
until moving to Texas in 2006. After arriving in Texas he began subbing
occasionally with Moon & the Starz, filling in for
Mark Harrell, their
talented Arlington-based keyboard player who was being offered more
paying gigs in the Dallas area closer to his home. In late spring of 2007, Mark V replaced Mark H and
the former Burrito tour band mates were reunited on a regular basis.