With his Capri release Our Métíer (September 21, 2018), Mark
Masters applies his prodigious talent for painting brilliant, complex, and
satisfying jazz landscapes. The eight
Masters compositions featured on the album showcase some of the most
adventurous creative improvising musicians in jazz today: Andrew Cyrille, Mark
Turner, Oliver Lake, Tim Hagans, Gary Foster, Dave Woodley and Putter Smith. In
addition, Masters incorporates the unique voice of Anna Mjoll as an orchestral
color, mixing with the instrumental waves in wordless swirls of sound.
The ensemble that supports these improvisers includes Scott
Englebright and Les Lovitt (trumpet), Stephanie O'Keefe (French horn), Les
Benedict and Ryan Dragon (trombone), Jerry Pinter, Kirsten Edkins and Bob Carr
(woodwinds), Ed Czach (piano), and Craig Fundyga (vibes). The group's big band
sound is augmented by bass clarinet and vibes giving the project, at times, an
ethereal personality.
In his ten previous projects for Capri Records, Masters has
reimagined the music of Lee Konitz, Gary McFarland, Dewey Redman, Donald Fagen
and Walter Becker (Steely Dan), Grachan Moncur III and Clifford Brown.
With Our Métíer, Masters has produced a classic
"free-bop" large ensemble statement.
One key to the success of the recording is the combination of
improvisers completely simpatico with the compositions. In fact, the music was
conceived and written specifically for these soloists. The music itself is an
artist's canvas filled with all the hues and textures that flow from Masters'
creative core.
The opening track "Borne Towards the Stars,"
inspired by the conclusion of Malcolm Lowry's novel "Under the
Volcano," shimmers with atmospheric gravity and features explosive solos
by Lake and Hagans. In "51 West
51st Street," drummer Cyrille establishes the groove after an opening
steeped in funk featuring Mjoll and Carr's bass clarinet. When Hagans and Foster boogaloo into the
musical space you can close your eyes and imagine being in Toots Shor's
legendary New York City bar.
"Lift" is an understated blues featuring Mjoll's exquisite
voice and solid solo work from Mjoll, Lake, Smith and Fundyga. The harmonically engaging "Ingvild's
Dance" with Foster and Turner brings to mind the classic pairing of Lee
Konitz and Warne Marsh. "A Précis of Dialogue" is the first of two
collective improvisations demonstrating clear textures and sparkling musical
interplay with Turner, Foster, Cyrille and Smith. Foster, Smith, Woodley, and Turner deliver
emotionally charged solo statements on the heartbreakingly gorgeous ballad
"Dispositions of the Heart."
"Obituary" is Masters' tribute to friends and teachers no
longer living. Far from a dirge, the
composition is an up- tempo, celebratory romp that shows off the ensemble in
top form. From the haunting opening and
trombone clusters aided by Mjoll to the sophisticated tenor sax and trumpet
solos that follow, "Luminescence" brings you the blues in an entirely
different way. "In Our Time," the second of two collective
improvisations is wildly exploratory, conversational and always
compelling. The title track closes the
recording with a powerful, quintessential "free-bop" statement.
Mark Masters (b. 1957) has earned wide acclaim as an
inventive and prolific composer and arranger. All About Jazz calls him
"one of the great jazz arrangers of the late 20th and 21st
centuries." Born in 1957 in Gary,
Indiana, Masters studied jazz at California State in LA. He organized his first
ensemble in 1982 and has never looked back.
"A strikingly creative spirit," (Jim Santella, All
About Jazz), Masters has led numerous recording sessions, almost all for Capri
Records. Among them are Priestess (Capri, 1990) that Masters wrote to feature
Billy Harper and Jimmy Knepper. A
subsequent recording with Knepper, The Jimmy Knepper Songbook (Focus, 1993),
featured arrangements by Masters of Knepper's compositions.
Masters' most recent recording Blue Skylight (Capri, 2017),
features his innovative ensemble writing and unique approach to the music of
Gerry Mulligan and Charles Mingus.
Farewell Walter Dewey Redman (Capri, 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, 2005) with Steve Kuhn, Gary Smulyan, Gary Foster, and Tim
Hagans, Exploration (Capri, 2004) with Grachan Moncur III's octet arranged by
Masters, One Day With Lee (Capri, 2004) featuring alto saxophonist Lee Konitz,
and The Clifford Brown Project (Capri, 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 and Everything
You Did: The Music of Walter Becker & Donald Fagen.
Masters' 2005 recording Porgy and BessŠRedefined! (Capri) 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 "ŠMasters' 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 served as a guest lecturer at Claremont McKenna
College (1999 - 2006) where he was involved with the History of Jazz class,
overseeing an oral history project, and writing for and producing a series of
concerts that brought such notable artists to the college as Billy Harper,
Billy Hart, Bennie Maupin, Rufus Reid, Sam Rivers, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Turner,
Gary Foster, Lee Konitz, Jack Montrose, John La Porta, Tim Hagans, Gary
Smulyan, Ray Drummond, Steve Kuhn, Peter Erskine, Joe La Barbera, Ted Brown,
Grachan Moncur III, Henry Grimes, and Dewey Redman.
Masters has been named a Rising Star Arranger in DownBeat
Magazine's Annual Critics Poll multiple times.
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