John Mars is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. Mars began his musical training at Sykes Music in Brantford, Ontario where he studied the drums with Carl Lemke. In the late 1960s, he played the drums in the band "John Mars and the Martians" with bassist Kevin Cosman and guitarist Stan Baka. The group disbanded after Baka was killed by a drunk driver. Mard then moved to Toronto where he met

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Stuart Broomer Stuart Broomer is a Canadian editor, music critic, pianist, writer, jazz historian, and composer. He is a former editor with '' CODA'' magazine and currently works as an editor at Coach House Books. As a music critic he has written articles for ...

and

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Bill Smith. The three men formed the successful

jazz trio A jazz trio is a group of three jazz musicians, often a piano trio comprising a pianist, a double bass player and a drummer. Jazz trios are commonly named after their leader, such as the Bill Evans Trio. Variants and examples Famous examples inc ...

"Broomer, Mars & Smith" which actively performed throughout the 1970s. In 1980 Smith left to pursue other projects and the duo "Stuart Broomer & John Mars" was formed. The duo performed up through 1986 and notably released the 1983 album ''Annihilated Surprise'' on Ugly Dog Records. While performing in the jazz duo with Broomer, Mars performed concurrently in the rock band "Brian's Children" which he established with guitarist /songwriter Dave Templeton (Temps) and drummer Teddy Fury in 1979. For this group, Martin served as lead singer and the main songwriter. The group released one single "Cut Her Hair b/w Oh Yeah" which was produced by

Daniel Lanois Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer and musician. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Harold Budd ...

. In 1986 Mars shortened the band's name to "The Children" and formed a new band with guitarist/songwriter Aurelio Lanzalone and bassist Mark Sinkowski. The group performed up through 1991 and went through several membership changes. In 1988 Mars began performing in the Ontario area with guitarist David Essig. In the mid-1990s he met guitarist Mike Ardelli and the two began performing with their mutual pal drummer Glenn Kimberley in an ad hoc group called the Natural Born Lovers. The band played rockabilly/roots in concert series at various universities. The band disbanded when Ardelli died of a brain tumor at the age of 24.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mars, John Canadian percussionists Canadian male singers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian male singer-songwriters Canadian singer-songwriters my:ဂျွန် မားဇ်