Local music community in mourning after virtuoso collapses, dies on stage

Jun. 19—Some described it as the performance of a lifetime.

Kern County's music community is in mourning this week after one of their own collapsed and died during a performance at the Bakersfield Jazz Workshop on Tuesday evening.

Held at the Petroleum Club at Sundale Country Club in southwest Bakersfield, organizers of the weekly workshop had invited Mark Infante, a well-liked and talented harmonica player and singer to provide an educational and entertaining clinic on the tiny musical instrument that had been his obsession and companion since he was a boy.

"Mark was the featured guest artist at the workshop that night," said longtime drummer Zanne Zarow. "He was a virtuoso on the harmonica. He played like a full rhythm section, while simultaneously playing the melody."

Infante, 69, told a story to the audience that night about a day during his childhood when a teacher brought some harmonicas to class and said students could buy one for $2.50. After young Mark gathered the money, he bought his first harmonica from his teacher.

On Tuesday, he had a briefcase full of harmonicas on stage with him, Zarow said.

He demonstrated various harmonicas, and then he dazzled the audience with John Phillip Souza's composition, "Stars and Stripes Forever," while the audience clapped along.

"Then he played the harmonica intro to the J.Geils Band's 'Whammer Jammer,' the ultimate blues-rock harmonica song," Zarow remembered. "He also played a beautiful jazz ballad, 'Misty.'"

"Then, halfway through his show, he smiled and fell over backwards from his stool onto the floor," she said. "He was given CPR until paramedics showed up, but he was already on the wings of a song, on his way to heaven to be with his love, Cathy."

He met Cathy Schultz after moving to Bakersfield from the East Coast in 2009, said his brother, David Infante. The two became almost inseparable — until Cathy's untimely passing in 2018.

On Tuesday night, a friend picked up Mark's phone and called David at his home in Phoenix.

"I was in my car and on the road to Bakersfield within 30 minutes," David Infante told The Californian.

But emergency medical workers were not able to save his brother.

Despite his shock and grief, David Infante said he's been amazed by the outpouring of love and condolences from Bakersfield's music community, as well as from music lovers and fans from Bakersfield and across Kern County.

He and his brother, Mark, and their sister, Stephanie Koloski, grew up in Milford, Conn.

Once Mark got his hands on that first harmonica, that was it, David remembered.

"He stuck with it his whole life."

Like many of Infante's Bakersfield friends, guitarist and vocalist Tim Stonelake met Mark at a Kern River Blues Society jam.

"I was immediately impressed with his chops on the harmonica," Stonelake said in a text. "We easily became friends and he has played in one of my bands for years.

"Mark was so friendly and enjoyed meeting people, usually at some musical event, and had many friends," Stonelake said. "It was hard not to love him."

Infante definitely loved the blues, but he could play jazz standards, Christmas songs, Italian favorites, patriotic pieces and more.

He could also disassemble a harmonica and modify it for perfect pitch, Stonelake said.

"Mark was excited about his featured performance at Tuesday's Bakersfield Jazz Workshop," he said. "He had prepared a set of songs, with additional commentary about the history and mechanics of harmonica music, and I knew it would be good."

But Stonelake was unable to attend, and like countless friends, fans and fellow musicians, he is sad to have missed his last chance to see his friend.

"How I wish we had been there for him on that night," he said.

Steve Eisen, jazz trumpeter and CEO of the Bakersfield Jazz Workshop, first met Infante at the workshop in 2009.

"I remember first hearing him perform on his harmonica at our jam session, and how natural and soulful he played, Eisen said. "It gave me goosebumps, and I knew then that he was the real deal, a true natural artist.

"From that point Mark continued being a regular participant at the workshop, where he played his instruments and sang so beautifully up until his final breath this past Tuesday."

The Bakersfield Jazz Workshop will be setting up a scholarship in Mark Infante's name, he said.

And Eisen echoed many musicians in Bakersfield who said Infante died doing what he most cherished. Many said it was only fitting for someone who loved music so well.

David, Mark's brother, agreed.

"He wouldn't have had it any other way," he said of Mark.

"And if he had it to do over again, he would do it exactly the same way."

Or as Zarow said, "on the wings of a song."

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.