"His pants are loose but his playing is tight." - A Beat fan from Newcastle, England
Welcome to London Bum Music
Bassist, Composer, Pianist
Mark London Sims
Words
Bassist Mark London Sims is passionate about playing music. He played bass on Rocky Dawuni’s Grammy nominated reggae album ‘Branches of the Same Tree,’ and Mychal Rose’s number one single “Glory to Jah.” Mark has also worked with the legendary Dub sound engineer - Scientist.
His experience includes playing on over 50 records including two of his own, “Strange Love Picnic and Limited Expression.” He has had the benefit of playing with Don Cherry (Ornette Coleman), Joe Higgs (Bob Marley), Stevie Wonder, Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath (Heath Brothers, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock), Charles Neville (Neville Bros), Percy Sledge, Ralph McDonald, Robert Greenidge (Jimmy Buffet), The Watts Prophets, Boujou Badialy Cissoko, The Mighty Sparrow, Floyd Domino (Asleep at the Wheel), Calypso Rose, Ken 'Professor' Philmore, Baron, Wei Wei Wuu, Aziz Faye, Sonja Marie, The Eels, Nels Cline (Wilco), Mark Nauseef (Thin Lizzy), L. Shankar, Ben Harper, David Torn, Andrae Alexander, the Untouchables and the English Beat.
Mark has toured extensively with shows throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia. His schedules have included the Montreux Jazz and Afro Pfingsten World Music festivals in Switzerland, the Summerjam Reggae Festival in Germany, Colours of Ostrava in the Czech Republic, BBC Radio Big Weekend in the United Kingdom, Woodstock in Poland, and the Coalition Against Systemic Racism concerts in Costa Rica, Canada and Brazil.
On Sundays Mark plays piano and is the musical director for the Saint Lawrence Gospel Choir of Watts in Los Angeles, California. He grew up listening to his grandmother and his cousins play in their A.M.E. church in San Bernardino, California. From there, Mark got a B.A. in Music Composition from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara and an M.F.A. in Jazz Composition from California Institute of the Arts.
Pan Dulce release; Mark London Sims on Bass
Scenes
The Untouchables