Markolino Dimond
Biographie Markolino Dimond
Mark Alexander Dimond
or Markolino as his colleagues at the time called him, was born in 1950. He was American and lived on the Lower East Side of New York City with his mother and older sister.
His mother was a social worker for the New York City Welfare Department, and his sister was a university student. Markolino always talked about his father. He said he was a Black Cuban man named Dimond, but none of his friends and colleagues from that time ever met him.
Mark studied some music as a child, but he was primarily self-taught. He could read music and write scores. It only took him to hear a song or touch the sheet music once to learn it forever. But from a young age, he was addicted to drugs, mainly heroin. When it came to drugs, Markolino couldn't control himself. This is according to Andy Harlow, one of his friends since they started playing together in Harlow's Sextet in 1966, thanks to the help of a neighbor and friend of Markolino's, Ismael Miranda.
Andy Harlow recounts that he was accompanying his brother Larry to a Brooklyn club called "The 3 in 1" where Larry was playing. He stepped outside for some fresh air when a young man approached him, introduced himself, and said, "I heard you're forming a band... I'm a singer, I play the congas, the maracas, and I also write songs... And I have a friend on my block in the Lower East Side who plays piano." This teenage boy was Ismael Miranda, and his friend, the pianist from the block, was Mark Dimond. Ismael was 17, Mark was 16, and Andy Harlow was around 20. Ismael helped Harlow finalize the band and even got them their first gig at the JJ Club on 80th Street and Broadway. This is how Markolino began to develop his talent professionally. Some time later, Ismael joined Timbalero Joey Pastrana's orchestra and achieved his first big hit, "Rumbón Melón." Dimond became the pianist for Willie Colón's Orchestra.
By the time of his first major recording, the album "The Hustler" with Colón's Orchestra in 1968, Markolino was already a brilliant pianist, as evidenced by the title track (where he showcases the independence of his playing) and "Guajirón," a guajira where Markolino constructs a montuno in opposition to the bass and also plays a solo, still a classic among salsa pianists today. But besides being a great pianist, he was also an addict. And all the baggage that came with it traveled with him: irresponsibility, unpunctuality, and problems managing money, among others.
