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Mark Isaacs

Mark Isaacs is an internationally acclaimed composer, pianist, conductor, film composer and songwriter whose work spans classical music, jazz and popular music. His work is distinguished by a lifelong commitment to imagination, craftsmanship and communication.

Isaacs has composed 135 works, many commissioned by Australia’s most distinguished orchestras, ensembles and musicians. His output includes three symphonies, six concertos, chamber, choral, vocal and solo works. He has received major awards including three Australia Council Fellowships, the APRA AMCOS/AMC Classical Music Award, the Albert H Maggs Composition Award and the Jean Bogan Prize for Piano Composition.

As a jazz pianist and composer, he has twice been nominated for the ARIA Award for Best Jazz Album. He has recorded and toured worldwide, appearing at festivals such as Tokyo Jazz Festival and Pori Jazz Finland, and working with legendary international figures including Roy Haynes, Dave Holland and Kenny Wheeler. His many albums have been released on major international and Australian labels including Naxos and ABC.

Isaacs is equally at home interpreting and creating, and his acclaimed recordings as a solo classical pianist span repertoire from Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Ravel to his own piano sonata and other compositions. He has performed and recorded with Australia’s leading classical instrumentalists, bringing a composer’s insight and imagination to the concert platform.

Isaacs has conducted his work with major orchestras and ensembles including the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Omega Ensemble and numerous studio orchestras.

Isaacs has also composed and conducted orchestral film scores, as well as music for television, theatre and dance.

In popular music, Isaacs has written the music and lyrics, produced and released original songs that combine sophisticated songwriting with large-scale orchestral imagination.

For a decade, Mark Isaacs served as an accredited voluntary telephone crisis supporter with Lifeline Australia, the nationwide suicide prevention service.

Resurgence: Duende

Read "Duende" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 21, 2013

Australian pianist Mark Isaacs has hit a long stride with his band Resurgence, releasing the band's fourth recording Duende. His three previous recordings with Resurgence: Resurgence (ABC Jazz, 2007), Tell It Like It Is (ABC Jazz, 2010), and Aurora Aurora (Gracemusic, 2011) have progressively probed the edges of contemporary jazz, filling out the sound that one might consider “contemporary mainstream jazz." While lyrically and harmonically progressive, Isaac's music is immediately accessible. This is what separates it from a good deal ...

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Album Review

Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band: Aurora

Read "Aurora" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
March 8, 2011

The last artistic musical movement in jazz to be given a meaningful name was the post-bop movement. Arising out of the mid-1960s as a unifying response to hard bop, modal, the avant-garde and free jazz, post-bop has fairly well dominated the most creative jazz made in the last 30 years. If post-bop has a ground zero, it is the recordings of the second great Miles Davis Quintet (Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams), either collectively or separately. ...

225

Album Review

Mark Isaacs: Aurora

by John Kelman
February 9, 2011

As Tell It Like It Is (ABC Jazz, 2009), amply proved, sometimes it's better to work with local musicians who, through regular touring, establish a singular collective voice. That's not to say Resurgence (ABC Jazz, 2007) was bad--it's hard to imagine anything with bassist Jay Anderson, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and saxophonist Bob Sheppard as lacking in the firepower department. Still, when looking at Australia-based pianist Mark Isaacs' discography of the past decade, the standout albums have invariably been those featuring ...

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Album Review

Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band: Tell It Like It Is

Read "Tell It Like It Is" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
February 26, 2010

Australian pianist Mark Isaacs has been recording forward-thinking progressive jazz for the past 25 years. His new millennium recordings have garnered popular response, including Closer (Naxos, 2000), Keeping the Standards (Vorticity Music, 2003), Visions (Vorticity Music, 2006), and Resurgence (ABC, 2007). During the last decade, Isaacs has been approaching a new assertive sound that unifies the more scripted elements of adult contemporary jazz with the improvisatory elements of the music's first 100 years.

Tell It Like It is was recorded ...

488

Album Review

Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band: Tell It Like It Is

Read "Tell It Like It Is" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
July 3, 2009

Sometimes it's better to work on home turf, with familiar musicians. Mark Isaacs' studio disc, Resurgence (ABC Jazz, 2007), paired the Australian pianist and guitarist James Muller--another Australian talent deserving of far greater attention--with American heavy hitters including drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist Jay Anderson and saxophonist Bob Sheppard. But as fine as the relative miniatures of Resurgence were, Isaacs' revamped Resurgence Band and the extended workouts of the live Tell It Like It Is far surpass anything on the previous ...

226

Album Review

Mark Isaacs: Resurgence

Read "Resurgence" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
October 15, 2007

Australian pianist and composer Mark Isaacs has done more than most any other jazz musician to seal the fault line between serious modern jazz improvisation and “contemporary jazz or “adult oriented jazz. I tend to classify the former as the jazz father's and earlier genre traditionalists (bebop, hard bop, modal) and the latter as well-behaved, unobtrusive music made by nameless popular performers, selling millions of copies.

Isaacs, with every release, has refined his systematic approach to post-modernity jazz ...

268

Album Review

Mark Isaacs: Resurgence

Read "Resurgence" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
August 17, 2007

After two albums exploring jazz standards and popular contemporary music--Keeping the Standards (Vorticity, 2004) and --Visions (Vorticity, 2006)--Australian pianist Mark Isaacs returns to original composition on Resurgence. A fixture on the Sydney scene, Isaacs has recruited his dream band for a strong program of contemporary mainstream jazz..

Isaac's American compatriots--bassist Jay Anderson, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and, on select tracks, woodwind multi-instrumentalists Bob Sheppard and Steve Tavaglione--have often intersected, but not all together in one room at the same time. Isaacs' ...

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Music Industry

Mark Isaacs CD "Closer" (Naxos) getting rave reviews on All About Jazz and elsewhere!

Source: All About Jazz

Mark Isaacs Closer (Naxos Jazz 86065-2) -- Released October 2000

Australian composer/pianist Mark Isaacs makes music for listeners to “feel", whether big, sweeping emotions, or subtle ephemeral light touches. With the eight self-penned tracks on Closer, Isaacs - with terrific accompaniment from four fellow Aussies including the remarkable James Muller on guitar -- establishes an intuitive ambience of beguiling beauty and colour. It's a CD that demands the listener get 'Closer'.

The versatile Isaacs is among Australia's leading composers/musicians and ...
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MARK ISAACS•QUOTES “The work of an artist capable of matching the rich elements of classical composition with the flowing rhythms of jazz . . the product of a splendid musical mind” LOS ANGELES TIMES “propelled by a winning combination of sharp rhythms and lyrical melodies” NEW YORK TIMES “The great modern Australian pianist/composer is no stranger to Moscow audiences . . pure, crisp and vehement . . I never thought that jazz was still so much alive” MOSCOW TRIBUNE "Monstrously brilliant....a prodigious group driven by a charismatic genius.... put [Isaacs] in a pair of iridescent orange Converse basketball boots and he becomes a stage demon.... a composer and musician utterly unencumbered by boundaries who has a breathtaking aptitude for making feeling and experience audible" AUSTRALIAN STAGE ONLINE “Isaacs, with every release, has refined his systematic approach to post-modernity jazz to the point that his sound defines what jazz should sound like at the advent of the 21st Century in the same way Joe King Oliver, Satch, and Bix defined New Orleans/Chicago, Basie and Ellington defined the swing era, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie defined be bop and Miles Davis defined everything else” "There are many reasons why Tell It Like It Is is Isaacs' best and hottest jazz album to date, but the Resurgence Band's energy and acute interplay, mixed with some of the pianist's best charts ever, make it an album that deserves attention far beyond Australia's shores" "Never does an Isaacs composition devolve into inane banging and clanging; this is music composed and performed for the listener, not at them. Wonderfully integrated, thoughtful and intelligent, Tell It Like It is continues Mark Isaacs musical journey, providing some of the best on the cutting edge of accessible jazz" “Like Jarrett at his best, what makes this set stand out from the plethora of piano trios covering the same material is the way that Isaacs re-imagines the tunes . . .bristling with fresh ideas and razor sharp vision, Mark Isaacs has talent to burn” “Seamless in conception, flawless in execution, exuberant in creativity . . . makes extremely complex music natural and accessible” ALL ABOUT JAZZ (USA) “With each new release Mark finds a new angle of addressing his prodigious talents and I find myself looking forward to seeing what he will come up with next. There is a sophisticated musicality at work that is special and rare. He is a serious musician looking to solve deep questions” PAT METHENY “In many ways Mark Isaacs’s personality could be compared with that of Leonard Bernstein•the same boundless energy, enthusiasm for a broad range of music, pianistic skills and passionate concern for the performance bring to mind similar impressions to those I received from the few occasions I was lucky enough to work with Maestro Bernstein” JOHN HARDING Concertmaster & Associate Conductor, Sydney Symphony Orchestra "If Mark Isaacs lived in the United States, no doubt he would already be signed to a major jazz label. Isaacs reshapes the standards to his own imagination•which appears to contain vast reservoirs of ideas. Isaacs makes the interpretations his own, unlike anyone else’s” JAZZREVIEW.COM (USA) “At heart, the work of a full-blooded romantic, though one with plenty of rhythmic vitality” GRAMOPHONE Magazine “From the opening bar of this record you know it's going to be good. The pristine sound of the piano immediately grabs your ear” TIME OUT (London) “an edge that opens doors to a wider audience” LA JAZZ SCENE “Isaacs' piano playing is filled with complex statements of thought-provoking density ... this approach leaves him naked, baring his heart and soul on each line and phrase that resounds from his concentrated style ... a delight to hear” CADENCE (USA) “Do the clocks run differently in Australia? . . Nothing in this production, conceived with painstaking attention to compositional detail, sounds over-hurried, agitated or anxious” PIANO NEWS (Germany) “polished, confident and deeply accomplished . . . must rank with the world’s finest” “magnificently portentous outpourings” “intelligent, sometimes dark, sometimes thorny, and always bittersweet . . a hybrid to be enjoyed and welcomed as one might any new rose in the musical garden” “spellbinding listening . . . utterly beguiling” “Mark Isaacs is a composer for all seasons” “a New Yorkerish flipness and cleverness . .worked like a charm” “an assurance not common on the local scene . . . alive and vivacious” “The performance was so compelling to hear and behold it should have been filmed” “haunting beauty” “Isaacs was typically audacious, creating dazzling melodic figures and emotional peaks” “transportingly beautiful” “The sound came in slivering cascades, like the finest crystal being joyously dashed into a fireplace” SYDNEY MORNING HERALD “a gorgeous score” FANFARE (UK) “He morphs the familiar into the unexpected. Great music, whatever genre, is about tension and release. This has it in spades” “One of Australia's most lyrical and evocative pianists . . . meticulous and reflective . . . sumptuous moments that need to be played over and over again . . . jaw-dropping work” “Leaves the listener gasping for breath” THE AGE (Melbourne) “The world of Mark Isaacs is a strangely compelling place. Passionate, whimsical, joyfully erratic. . sometimes eccentric and always deeply thoughtful . . letting loose, overflowing with ideas” “Sumptuous Messiaen-like chord voicings….effortlessly tossing off blistering bop lines...Isaacs’s beautifully conceived improvisations” “gorgeous . . uplifting . . suggesting a kind of redemptive theme” “He moved through spontaneous harmonic changes that shimmered with beauty” THE AUSTRALIAN “stylishly presented, gorgeously coloured and pithily to the point . . astonishing" THE ADVERTISER (Adelaide) “Their interpretations avoid any suggestion of the prosaic and become pieces of rare and sometimes fragile beauty” “Another section on Mark Isaacs’s enchanting journey through music . . a deeply concentrated journeying into harmonies, rhythms, thought patterns” “reflective, contemplative, inspiring calm, contentment, an understanding that there is beauty to be seen, and heard, and felt” CANBERRA TIMES “Taking on the challenge of finding something new to say with some familiar songs [Isaacs] succeeds brilliantly” THE BULLETIN (Australia) “Mr Isaacs' piano playing demonstrated as wide a palette of colours as I can remember hearing” ARMIDALE EXPRESS “Some of the most penetratingly beautiful music you’re ever likely to hear” “This quintet is so in sync with each other it’s as if they are sharing a single heart” DRUM MEDIA (Sydney) “As ever with Isaacs, it is direct, concentrated and free-wheeling, as playful and serious as art can be” “There have been some hugely impressive jazz trio albums released in the past 12 months . . but none has made me smile as much this new one from Isaacs . . littered with moment after moment of superb timing and crack ensemble” “accessible, enthralling music . . dignified, lofty, yet warm beauty . . .a lasting pleasure” AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW “Mark Isaacs confirms his standing as a musician with a style that's unique among his contemporaries. . . His vision is unique” “Isaacs' piano is one of the most distinctive sounds in Australian jazz” SHE (Australia) “Beautiful melodies, body-shifting grooves and adventurous improvisations are all embraced . . deeply” THE PLANET (ABC Radio National) “Isaacs is playing as nature intended, naked and with no strings attached” “The music rolled, sparkling, beautiful, brilliantly rhythmic” “from tranquillity to a torrent of energy and invention” ON THE STREET (Sydney) “There is never the feeling that he is uncertain of his next move . . everything flows with spontaneity and vitality” COURIER MAIL (Brisbane) “Numinous interpretations delivered with a measured grace . . .displaying all the beautiful reasons why the piano trio format is so bewitching and ageless” “inspired musicianship and superb compositional abilities . . brilliant . . it is the sure, inspired hands and mind of Isaacs that underpin the music’s success” SUNDAY HERALD SUN (Melbourne) “magnificent . . . Mark Isaacs is a super musician” 24 HOURS (Australia)

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