Marvin Pontiac

Biography

Marvin Pontiac is a fictional musical persona created by American musician, actor, and composer John Lurie, leader of the Lounge Lizards. The elaborate backstory portrays Pontiac as born in 1932 to a Malian father (originally surnamed Toure, changed to Pontiac upon moving to Detroit) and a Jewish mother from New Rochelle, New York. After his mother's institutionalization in 1936, he was raised in Bamako, Mali until age 15, where local music profoundly shaped him, before returning to the U.S. and pursuing an eclectic career blending blues, jazz, R&B, and storytelling in the 1950s and beyond, allegedly dying in 1977 after being hit by a bus in Detroit.[1][2][4][5][6]

Fun Facts

• John Lurie noted that listeners were more upset about him pretending to be insane than pretending to be Black in creating the Pontiac persona.
• The fictional lore claims Marvin Pontiac's music was the only one Jackson Pollock would listen to while painting, though Pollock reportedly did not reciprocate the respect.
• Pontiac's debut album was released as a 'posthumous' greatest hits collection, despite the character's supposed death in 1977.
• The Asylum Tapes (2013) was presented as recordings made on a donated 4-track in a mental institution called Esmerelda State Mental Institution.

Musical Connections

Key Collaborators

• John Lurie - Creator and primary performer of the Marvin Pontiac persona (The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits (1999), The Asylum Tapes (2013)) [1990s-2010s]
• Marc Ribot - Guitarist collaborator on debut album (The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits) [1990s]
• Tony Scherr - Bassist collaborator on debut album (The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits) [1990s]
• John Medeski - Keyboardist on debut album (The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits) [1990s]
• Billy Martin - Drummer on debut album (The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits) [1990s]
• G. Calvin Weston - Drummer on debut album (The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits) [1990s]

External Links

• Spotify