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Mark Ivester

Mark is a versatile freelance drummer/percussionist with extensive experience in many different idioms from pop-rock to big band to jazz to orchestral settings. He has performed with many national jazz artists including Larry Coryell, Freddie Hubbard, Diane Schuur, Mose Allison, Charlie Byrd and Eartha Kitt. He is currently performing and recording with the Jovino Santos Neto quartet, Sonando, and The Nick Manson trio. In the classical field, Mark has performed with the Honolulu, Spokane and Walla Walla Symphony Orchestras. Mark is a founding member of the professional percussion ensemble "Happy Hammers". This group performs percussion music of various ethnic influences including steel drums of Trinidad, African drumming of the Ewe and Yoruba tribes, Afro-Cuban drumming, Brazilian samba and American jazz on mallet keyboard instruments. Mark earned a Bachelor of Music degree at Eastern Washington University. He did undergraduate and graduate work in ethnomusicology at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu which included field study of gamelan in Java. He has taught privately since 1973 and has been on the faculties of Gonzaga University in Spokane, Spokane Falls Community College, Highline Community College and Olympic College, Bremerton.

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6
Liner Notes

Francesco Crosara: Circular Motion

Read "Francesco Crosara: Circular Motion" reviewed by David Adler


"I refuse to be labeled a 'straight-ahead' player or a 'fusion' player," says Italian-born, Seattle-based pianist Francesco Crosara. It's a sentiment widely shared by jazz musicians, though they follow many different roads to get to that place. Crosara, for his part, plays both acoustic piano and Yamaha MODX-8 synthesizer on this absorbing, varied program of original music for three different trio lineups, two of them with electric bass. He cites the influence of Chick Corea, a mentor and family friend ...

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Album Review

Dmitri Matheny: Cascadia

Read "Cascadia" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Cascadia encompasses an hour of amiable, even-tempered jazz from trumpeter Dmitri Matheny who, like several of his predecessors—Chet Baker, Chuck Mangione, Guido Basso and his mentor, Art Farmer, among them—focuses exclusively on flugelhorn. Matheny uses his gorgeous tone and remarkable lyricism to paint exquisite portraits in sound throughout a program whose ten engaging numbers enfold half a dozen of his original compositions. Matheny shares the front line with saxophonist Charles McNeal whose solos (on soprano or tenor ...

5
Album Review

Dmitri Matheny: Cascadia

Read "Cascadia" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Flugelhornist Dmitri Matheny and his quintet play perfectly on Cascadia. There is no surprise there—with a rhythm section of pianist Bill Anschell, bassist Phil Sparks and drummer Mark Ivester backing the front line of Matheny and saxophonist Charles McNeil— perfection is the expectation. Matheny grew up in Georgia and Arizona, spent a formative and near-obligatory stint in New York City, and played for a time in the band of pianist Amina Figarova—another jazz artist who knows something about ...

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Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Circular Motion

OA2 Records
2024

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Dare to Love-Dare to...

Bonaberi-to Paris
2023

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Cascadia

Origin Records
2022

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Mai-Liis on Life

OA2 Records
2021

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Mystery & Wonder

Origin Records
2021

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Julia's Tango

From: Circular Motion
By Mark Ivester

Preludio Flamenco

From: Circular Motion
By Mark Ivester

What's Going On

From: Dare to Love-Dare to Dream
By Mark Ivester

Cascadia

From: Cascadia
By Mark Ivester

Wonderland

From: Mystery & Wonder
By Mark Ivester

Unicorns and Innocence

From: Mai-Liis on Life
By Mark Ivester

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