All of us at FRONT of HOUSE were saddened to hear of the sudden (and certainly unexpected) passing of ML Procise III, who died away in his sleep in the early morning hours of March 5, 2015 at his home near Dallas. He was 62.
Procise — his legal name was Martin Luther Procise III, but he preferred being called “ML” — was the senior director of touring at Clair Global and prior to that, a VP of sales at Showco, but those titles hardly reflects his impact on an entire industry.
During his four-decade career, Procise’s well deserved reputation for excellence was manifested in his latter years as an executive for two world-class live sound organizations as well as his long tenure arguably as the top front of house (and monitor) mixer in the industry. His superb work engineering more than 4,500 arena and stadium shows for top acts began in the mid-1970’s working for bands such as Genesis, Electric Light Orchestra, The Beach Boys and The Bee Gees (Saturday Night Fever tour), followed by seven years with Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5.
With the growing popularity of arena rock in the early 1980’s, Procise focused on that genre, kicking off a 13-year stint with ZZ Top (doing more than 500 shows in the process), along with Guns ‘N Roses, Bob Seger, Boston and the Jackson 5’s historic “Victory” tour — among others. He also served as monitor engineer for David Bowie’s landmark “Serious Moonlight” tour.
“Every industry has its legends, and ML was truly one of our own,” said Troy Clair, president/CEO of Clair Global, which acquired Showco in 2000 and with it brought Procise onboard the Clair team. “On a personal level, our relationship evolved over the years from competitors to colleagues to friends. He will certainly be missed by the numerous sound engineers, techs, production and artist managers who were privileged to have known and worked with him, be it on the road or in the studio.”
Friendly and always willing to share his expertise to others in the biz, Procise generously would volunteer to appear on panel discussions at tradeshows and other industry events. More than anything, Procise was a person who devoted his life and dedicated his career to providing great sound, and he was never one to be locked into any single genre, also working with artists such as Alice in Chains, Green Day, Limp Bizkit, Jane’s Addiction, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden and Stevie Nicks.
Through it all, he was never afraid of technology. While these days, recording shows from FOH is commonplace, it wasn’t always that easy. When he started working with ZZ Top back in the early 1980’s, few options were available, other than the usual “cut a cassette for the band.” But undaunted and interested in pushing the fidelity envelope with what he had available, he began archiving ZZ Top shows using the Sony PCM-F1 format, which digitized an analog feed into a 16-bit PCM digital audio stream stored on a consumer videotape recorder. This could store the board mix, but taking the process a step further, he’d often print two mics placed at the FOH position, fed to the VCR’s “Hi-Fi” inputs, storing a 4-track mix of the console output and two room mics.
I once visited Procise while he was mixing Boston’s “Third Stage” tour in 1987. There was a wall of Marshall cabinets surrounding the back of the nearly bare stage. This was in the days before IEM’s and there were no stage wedges at all, because all those 4×12 cabinets had been fitted with stage monitor components — everyone in the band was going direct (Scholz Rockmans, of course) and the huge drum kit was packed with foam pads and piezo sensors that triggered two Akai S900 drum machines backstage. The stage levels were amazingly low and ML’s house mix was amazing!
ML Procise, on the Boston tour, circa 1987
Almost equally amazing was how Procise got into the pro industry. A favorite story he enjoyed telling stems from 1975, when he was just another guy in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. A longtime childhood friend moved to Texas, ended up working at Showco and called Procise, asking if he wanted to mix monitors for Genesis’ A Trick of the Tail tour, which happened to be his favorite group. Procise didn’t have to consider that offer very long, and a couple days later, he was off with the band.
One thing that never changed about ML Procise was the fact that he was loved by artists, techs, road crews, co-workers… pretty much everyone he met. All that and he was a master of the craft and could make even a funky hockey rink sound like an intimate living room for 15,000 fans.
Farewell, old friend. We’ll miss your smile, your great sense of humor and your big heart. You were — and always will be — truly one of a kind.
A memorial service for ML Procise will be held on Friday, March 13th at 1:00pm at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship Church, 4141 International Pkwy, Carrollton, TX 75007.
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In lieu of flowers, the family has requested your continuing support and donations be channeled to MUSICARES.
MusiCares provides a safety net of critical assistance for music people in times of need. MusiCares’ services and resources cover a wide range of financial, medical and personal emergencies, and each case is treated with integrity and confidentiality. MusiCares also focuses the resources and attention of the music industry on human service issues that directly impact the health and welfare of the music community.
Make a DONATION in the amount of your choice or click below to learn about how your donation can help.
http://www.grammy.org/musicares/donate
Alternatively, you can also send donations by check in Honor of M.L. Procise III and Debbie Procise reference on the memo line directly to:
MusiCares, 3030 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404
310.392.3777
ATTN. Harold Owens, Sr. Director, Musicares
