MARK Naftalin was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he lived until his mid-'teens, gaining an early outlet for his blues piano style with area favorites Johnny & The Galaxies.

           MOVING to Chicago in 1961 and enrolling at the University of Chicago, Naftalin continued his pursuit of blues piano by sitting in (from time to time) at the campus "twist parties," where the resident band featured singer and blues harmonica player Paul Butterfield and guitarist Elvin Bishop, the nucleus of what was to become the now-legendary Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

           MOVING on to New York City, Naftalin spent a year at the Mannes College of Music and then, on September 9, 1965, sat in with the Butterfield Band again -- playing organ, this time, and matching solos with Paul and the group's new lead guitarist, Michael Bloomfield, on a recording session warm-up song. As the session continued, Naftalin was invited to keep playing, and then to join the band, with whom he toured for two and a half years and recorded four albums, including the classic East-West. The results of that fateful session -- including the "warm-up song," "Thank You Mr. Poobah" -- are on the Elektra album The Paul Butterfield Blues Band.

           AFTER his stint with the Butterfield Band, Naftalin settled in the San Francisco Bay Area and embarked on a career which has included playing with and leading bands; solo concertizing; playing on blues and rock recording sessions (about one hundred albums to date, including reissues); producing festivals, concerts and radio shows; co-founding a non-profit cultural organization; songwriting and composing; and producing records for his own label.

           FROM the late 'sixties through the mid-'seventies, Naftalin played in the Bay Area and around the country (and on a number of recordings) with Michael Bloomfield, sometimes as a duo, but most often as a band called Mike Bloomfield And Friends.

           IN 1979, after producing several short blues concert series (starting at the Boarding House in San Francisco), Naftalin initiated Mark Naftalin's Blue Monday Party, a weekly blues show which ran for four and a half years, featured over sixty blues artists and groups, and was the scene of 86 live radio broadcasts and three television specials. Two of these specials (one with John Lee Hooker and Charlie Musselwhite, the other with Percy Mayfield and Lowell Fulson) have been broadcast on PBS stations in major markets and released as videos. The Blue Monday Party radio broadcast was honored with the Billboard Radio Award for best locally-oriented special programming, 1982.

           AS the Blue Monday Party grew, Naftalin developed his Rhythm & Blues Revue and his weekly Blues Power Hour radio show. Winner of the Bay Area Music Award (BAMMIE) for best blues/ethnic/gospel group of 1980, the Mark Naftalin Rhythm Rhythm & Blues Revue has played festivals and clubs on both coasts. On San Francisco's KALW-FM since 1984, Mark Naftalin's Blues Power Hour is the winner of the 1992 Tom Donahue Radio Award for the best program on a non-commercial station and has run on two commercial stations in the Bay Area: KTIM-FM (1979- 1983) and KFOG-FM (1987-1990).

           SINCE 1981, Naftalin has produced the annual Marin County Blues Festival (a special feature of the Marin County Fair) in San Rafael, California. Festival stars have included Charles Brown, Nappy Brown, Dr. John, Mable John, Albert King, Nellie Lutcher, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Brownie McGhee, The Johnny Otis Show, Sonny Rhodes, the original Soul Stirrers, Rufus Thomas, Jimmy Witherspoon and many more.

           FROM 1982 through 1992, Naftalin programmed blues for the Monterey Jazz Festival, where his title was Associate Producer of the Blues Afternoon and where he presented Bo Diddley, Ruth Brown, Albert Collins, Pee Wee Crayton, Lowell Fulson, Lloyd Glenn, Buddy Guy, Johnny Heartsman, John Lee Hooker, Etta James, B.B. King, Little Milton, Percy Mayfield, Jimmy McCracklin, Charlie Musselwhite, Yank Rachell, Carla Thomas, Irma Thomas, Henry Townsend, Luther Tucker, Katie Webster, Junior Wells and many more.

           NAFTALIN'S other concert productions include blues festivals or shows at the San Mateo, Alameda and Sonoma County Fairs (all in California) and the Westport Blues Festival (1993-94) in Westport, Connecticut.

           IN 1982, Naftalin acted as interviewer and pianist in the video-documentary Percy Mayfield -- Poet Laureate Of The Blues (1985 recipient of the Blues Foundation's Keeping The Blues Alive award in visual broadcast). This 30-minute video features blues poet Percy Mayfield singing his famous compositions with Naftalin on piano, along with interview segments, songs recorded onstage at the Blue Monday Party and testimonials from Ray Charles and B.B. King.

           IN 1983, Naftalin and Blue Monday Party production director Dennis Hale founded the Blue Monday Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the appreciation and understanding of indigenous American music. The foundation has supported the Marin County Blues Festival, presented free community concerts and produced more than fifty historical shows sponsored by Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Naftalin has served as the organization's executive director and board president.

           IN 1988, Naftalin established the Winner Producing Company and entered the record business with the independent label, Winner Records. Winner releases include two albums of live Paul Butterfield Blues Band nightclub recordings collected by Naftalin during his travels with the group (East-West Live and Strawberry Jam), and two albums recorded during Blue Monday Party radio broadcasts (Just Like A Devil by slide guitar virtuoso Ron Thompson and Percy Mayfield Live, Mayfield's only authorized live recording).

           RECORDINGS of Naftalin's compositions include the instrumental "Strawberry Jam" on the Butterfield Band's Strawberry Jam album; "Lonely Song," sung by Buddy Miles on the Electric Flag's album The Band Kept Playing; "Blues For Special Friends," played by Naftalin and an ensemble featuring guitarist Bobby Murray on the Bay Area anthology The Usual Suspects; "I Just Can't Stay" sung by Sonny Rhodes on his album The Blues Is My Best Friend; and the Winner 45 "Treehouse Blues," a piano solo, backed by "Honest & True" (a.k.a. "Theme From The Blues Power Hour"), on which Naftalin plays all five instruments.

           FOR his multi-faceted work as a musician and producer, Naftalin's reward has been friendship and professional connection with a host of musical greats, including -- in addition to those mentioned above -- Roy Brown, Francis Clay, Cool Papa, James Cotton, Nick Gravenites, John Hammond, Dottie Ivory, Little Joe Blue, J.J. Malone, Maurice McKinnies, Fenton Robinson, Otis Rush, Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, Mississippi Johnny Waters and many more.