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Mark Masters

Mark Masters (b. 1957) is an inventive and prolific composer and arranger from southern California. He organized his first ensemble in 1982. In 1990, Masters wrote the album PRIESTESS (Capri 74031) to feature Billy Harper and Jimmy Knepper. A subsequent recording with Knepper, THE JIMMY KNEPPER SONGBOOK (Focus 1001, 1993) featured arrangements by Masters of Knepper’s compositions.

The most recent recording by Masters, OUR METIER (Capri 74150, 2018), features Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Gary Foster, Mark Turner, Tim Hagans, Putter Smith, and Dave Woodley in a large ensemble setting. Michael Ullman calls OUR METIER “…an eclectic and beautifully accomplished big band recording that is made up of, for once, Masters’ originals.” DOWNBEAT magazine awarded the recording four stars in its December 2018 issue. FAREWELL WALTER DEWEY REDMAN (Capri 74089, 2008) features Masters’ “in and out” approach and re-casts Dewey Redman’s music while retaining its substance. The project features Oliver Lake, Tim Hagans, Dave Carpenter, and Peter Erskine. Other recordings include WISH ME WELL (Capri 74078, 2005), with Steve Kuhn, Gary Smulyan, Gary Foster, and Tim Hagans, EXPLORATION (Capri 74068, 2004) with Grachan Moncur III’s octet arranged by Masters, ONE DAY WITH LEE (Capri 74064, 2004) featuring alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, and THE CLIFFORD BROWN PROJECT (Capri 74059, 2003) featuring Jack Montrose, Gary Smulyan, Tim Hagans, Cecilia Coleman, and Joe La Barbera. In addition, in 2013 Capri released two recordings, ELLINGTON SAXOPHONE ENCOUNTERS (Capri 74118), and EVERYTHING YOU DID: THE MUSIC OF WALTER BECKER & DONALD FAGEN (Capri 74123). Released in 2017, BLUE SKYLIGHT (Capri 74143) features Masters’ innovative ensemble writing and unique approach to the music of Gerry Mulligan and Charles Mingus. In 2008, Masters wrote the arrangements for Gary Smulyan’s Reservoir Music (195) release THE JAZZ SOUL OF FRANKIE LAINE.

Masters’ 2005 recording PORGY AND BESS…REDEFINED! (Capri 74069) is a more harmonically adventurous approach to Gershwin’s classic folk opera than what has come before. John Kelman, writing for All About Jazz said “…Masters’ score is the real star here. From the opening fanfare he introduces two contrasting elements that, to a large part, define the approach to the whole suite-vibrant swing and some surprisingly free passages. He clearly proves that it’s possible to take a piece that has been approached from a variety of angles and still find a new way in.”

Since 1998, Masters has been president of The American Jazz Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the enrichment and enhancement of the appreciation of jazz. Under Masters’ direction, the AJI supports activities that educate and expose the public to jazz through live performance and an oral history project, as well as by supporting charitable endeavors that advance jazz music. One such endeavor is the AJI’s FIND YOUR OWN VOICE mentoring program that takes professional musicians to middle and upper school campuses to present clinics and master classes to student musicians. Masters is currently teaching beginning instrumental music in the Temecula, California schools and volunteering at Eagle Rock High School in Los Angeles, teaching a beginning jazz ensemble.

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Radio & Podcasts

Mark Masters, Branford Marsalis, and RIP Lalo Schifrin

Read "Mark Masters, Branford Marsalis, and RIP Lalo Schifrin" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


This episode features music by the Mark Masters Ensemble, Branford Marsalis, Spike Wilner, Ray Russell and others. It also pays tribute to the late composer Lalo Schifrin. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Ryan Truesdell “The Ballad of the Sad Young Men" from Shades of Sound (Outside In) 1:08 Chris Varga “This System of Things" from Breathe (Calligram) 6:23 ...

8
Album Review

Mark Masters Ensemble: Sam Rivers 100

Read "Sam Rivers 100" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The Mark Masters Ensemble released Porgy and Bess Redefined! (Capri Records) in 2005. The music was taken from the George Gershwin/DuBose Heyward English-language opera, which was first performed in 1935. Masters' take on the classic was brilliantly expressed by the ensemble, who dug into his adventurous charts with freedom mixed with respect for the familiar and often-covered (most notably by the Miles Davis/Gil Evans teaming) original. It was a breakout effort for Masters. Billy Harper was there on tenor sax, ...

30
Album Review

Mark Masters Ensemble: Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance!

Read "Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance!" reviewed by Jack Bowers


In 2023-24, the celebrated arranger Mark Masters led his superb southern California-based ensemble into studios to record a pair of tribute albums. The first, Sam Rivers 100, was dedicated to the music of the late saxophonist on the one hundredth anniversary of his birth; the second, Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance!, to that of another renowned saxophonist, Billy Harper, who is not only very much alive at age eighty-two but serves as guest soloist on both recordings. Unlike ...

37
Album Review

Mark Masters: Sam Rivers 100

Read "Sam Rivers 100" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Sam Rivers 100 is the first of two homages recorded in 2023-24 by arranger Mark Masters and his blue chip southern California-based ensemble. This one pays tribute to the music of the late saxophonist Sam Rivers on the hundredth anniversary of his birth; the second, Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance! salutes the music of tenor saxophonist Billy Harper who is the ensemble's guest soloist on both albums. Rivers, who died in December 2011, was an early bebopper who ...

4
Album Review

Adam Schroeder & Mark Masters celebrate Clark Terry: CT!

Read "CT!" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


In jazz, where the past intertwines with the present and the future, few figures were as influential as the legendary trumpeter Clark Terry. During his playing career, he developed a creative, bouncy style with an irrepressible rhythmic verve that was entirely his own. The album CT! with baritone saxophonist Adam Schroeder and arranger Mark Masters serves as a heartfelt homage to this jazz icon, presenting fresh and invigorating arrangements of 13 Clark Terry originals skillfully performed by a 12-piece ensemble. ...

16
Album Review

Mark Masters: Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster

Read "Masters & Baron Meet Blanton & Webster" reviewed by Jack Bowers


It is an absolute pleasure to hear several of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn's classic charts for Ellington's celebrated 1940-42 Blanton-Webster orchestra (named for a pair of its stars, bassist Jimmy Blanton and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster) adeptly rescored for a twenty-first century ensemble by the superlative arranger Mark Masters. And to ice the cake, the Masters ensemble welcomes to its ranks Art Baron, the last trombonist hired by Ellington, who anchored the plunger chair from 1973 until Ellington's death ...

Album Review

Mark Masters: Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook

Read "Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Ringraziando il cielo nascono ancora dischi come questo. Opere che evocano gli anni cinquanta, quando il jazz rifletteva un mondo che guardava al futuro con speranza. Un disco retrò dunque? Solo se lo si guarda superficialmente. L'omaggio di Mark Masters al songbook di Alec Wilder con Gary Smulyan protagonista, non è esercizio stilistico o lavoro di routine ma un percorso fresco e smagliante, caratterizzato dalle dinamiche orchestrazioni di Masters e dai trascinanti interventi del sax baritono. Un'opera i cui i ...

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Recording

Mark Masters on Alec Wilder

Mark Masters on Alec Wilder

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

One of the finest jazz albums of the year is a collaboration between trumpter-arranger Mark Masters and baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan. The album is Night Talk: The Alec Wilder Songbook (Capri). If you're unfamiliar with Masters, now's a good time to explore. His arranging skills are magnificent, and he has a long history of turning out exceptional work. He also is president of the American Jazz Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to the enrichment and enhancement of the appreciation of ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Sam Rivers 100

Capri Records
2025

buy

Dance, Eternal...

Capri Records
2025

buy

CT!

Capri Records
2024

buy

Our Metier

Capri Records
2018

buy

Downstairs Blues Upstairs

From: Sam Rivers 100
By Mark Masters

Was It Here...Is It There?

From: Dance, Eternal Spirits, Dance!
By Mark Masters

Serenade to a Bus Seat

From: CT!
By Mark Masters

Monk, Bunk and Vice Versa

From: Blue Skylight
By Mark Masters

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