Drummer and percussionist Marco Duarte was born in La Mirada, CA in July

1983. At the age of 5, Marco began to show an interest in drums when his dad, John,

brought home a set that he purchased at a pawn shop. The casual interest grew and

Marco's parents decided it was time for lessons, so they took him to the local music

shop where he took lessons with Jamie Wollam for 3 years. The lessons stopped, but

the drumming didn't. Marco kept playing along to his favorite bands which included

Nirvana, Sublime, and Rage Against The Machine.

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Fast forward to his teenage years, Marco began jamming with friends from

school playing covers of rock and metal songs. Then Marco discovered that his cousin,

Anthony Valencia, had taken up a new hobbie… playing bass! The two young musicians

constantly played together in several bands of different genres over the next few years.

Marco then went on to attend the LA Music Academy, where he studied with Ralph

Humphrey, Joe Porcaro, Tony Inzalaco, Mike Shapiro, Matt Star, Dave Beyer, Jerry

Steinholtz, and Michael Packer. “That was one of the greatest experiences I've ever

had.” Says Marco of his time spent at LAMA. “I learned so much about different styles of

music that I had never played before and I made a lot of great friends in the process.”

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Marco currently plays in the band Jade Sunrise with his cousin Anthony on guitar

and vocals, Wil Purtle on bass, and Christian Meni on guitar and lead vocals. “Jade

Sunrise is everything I've ever wanted in a band. There are no boundaries, only

possibilities!” Jade Sunrise performs regularly all over southern California with their own

brand of eclectic rock. “I hate when people ask me to label it. Sure, our music is rooted

in rock, but there are strong in?uences coming from reggae, ska, jazz, funk, r&b, gospel,

blues, fusion, pop, and afro-cuban and brazilian styles… how do you label that? More

importantly, why would you want to?”

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Aside from Jade, Marco and the guys also back up several artists from the

Crown West label such as Spawnbreezie, King Cyrus, J. Rizzo, and Priesthood, to

name a few. “As if Jade doesn't have enough going on stylistically, these artists all have

different needs in terms of sounds from the band. Luckily, Soultone makes great

cymbals that meet those needs, so I can sound good in a variety of situations without

having to make a lot of changes to my set-up. I'm very proud to be associated with a

company such as Soultone!”