Doyle started Free Will in 1967, which later changed its name to Jukin’ Bone; by his late teens the band was signed to RCA. After Jukin’ Bone ended, Doyle worked with artists such as glam rocker David Werner and realized he could produce as well as the best in the business. His skills led him to work with Arif Martin, Andy Pratt, Cindy Bullens, Hall and Oates, Judy Collins, Meat Loaf, Maurice Starr and Bryan Adams. It also offered him the opportunity to branch into writing string arrangements.
“People were coming from Japan,” Doyle explains. “It’s outrageously expensive to make records there, so they’d come to Boston to record strings. My friend called and said, ‘Can you do string arrangements?’ I hadn’t done them in years, so I said, ‘Yes, I can.’ So I went to the library, got orchestration books and frantically started putting it together. My dad was still alive, so I would call him and say, ‘Can I do this and this?’ He talked me off the ledge a few times. But since I did such a good job, that’s how the original introduction to Maurice (Starr) came about.”
That connection led to years of production and performance work in the industry, but also brought Doyle back home. For Doyle, home is where the heart is — and the art is.
Mark Doyle’s career is decorated with accomplishments, much like the walls of his studio, adorned with original Beatles vinyl and platinum records. But the musician doesn’t live his life complacently: He continues to strive for his next goals.
Although he’s well known for his powerful blues rock band, Mark Doyle and the Maniacs, his 2014 mission is to revive his Guitar Noir project, which has never been performed live. Doyle will present his strings-based showcase on Friday, May 16, at the Auburn Public Theater. He’ll also bring a different collection of Guitar Noir-inspired material to the Syracuse M&T Jazz Fest in July.
“This New Year’s Day I was doing some resolutions, although I don’t really believe in those because I’m always trying to be the best I can be,” Doyle recalls. “I asked myself what I would do if this was the last year I had to do this. Right at the top of the list was Guitar Noir. It felt like unfinished business.”
Doyle, son of well-known jazz pianist Bobby Doyle, grew up in Auburn and was a piano prodigy. He’d study classical music for nine months of the year, but yearned for the three summer months he could study jazz with his father. By the time he was 10, he was performing with his father on local television and radio programs, along with working with him as he composed and arranged. But when Doyle saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, he picked up a guitar that has seldom been set down since.
Live Version of Guitar Noir Tops Doyle’s Life List

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His 2014 mission is to revive his Guitar Noir project