Jazz Articles about Mark Masters

The Mark Masters Jazz Ensemble: The Clifford Brown Project

by Jack Bowers
February 3, 2004

We don’t hand out stars with our reviews at All About Jazz, but if we did, this spectacular tribute to legendary trumpeter Clifford Brown by the Mark Masters Jazz Ensemble would easily earn five of them—or a solid ten on the oft-quoted “scale of one-to-ten.” Some albums are good, some are better than good, while others, like this one, are quite simply in a class by themselves.

For starters, we have the superlative compositions of Brownie himself, many ...

The Mark Masters Jazz Orchestra: Early Start

by Jack Bowers
June 1, 2001

I’d heard the Mark Masters Jazz Orchestra before and been disappointed — not by the orchestra itself but by the recording, which sounded dry and sterile, almost as though it had been recorded in someone’s closet or a telephone booth. This reissue on Americatone is much better, both sonically and aesthetically. Masters has fashioned his ensemble in the image of the wonderful Stan Kenton Orchestra, and the eight selections on this album were all composed and / or arranged by ...