Mark Gross
Encyclopedia
www.markgrossmusic.com
Mark Gross (February 20, 1966) is a Baltimore-born jazz
alto saxophonist. He studied at the Berklee College of Music
, graduating in 1988, then worked in the band of Lionel Hampton
, performing in Five Guys Named Moe
on Broadway. He has since worked with a variety of other artists, including the bands of Delfeayo Marsalis
, Nat Adderley
and the Dave Holland Big Band.
Gross first recorded as a solo act with 1997's Preach Daddy, following it up with 2000's The Riddle of the Sphinx.
Big Band, Gross swings and sings with soul and rhythm along today's jazz vanguard. He constantly pushes the music forward, while staying true to the elements of the classic sound. Gross has recorded on over 40 notable jazz recording, including Grammy winning projects by the Dave Holland Big Band - 'What Goes Around' on ECM Records, and 'Overtime' on Dare 2 Records. Gross has recorded 2 CDs under his own name to date. 'Preach Daddy' on King Records and 'Riddle of the Sphinx' on J Curve Records. His consistently professional musicianship has led to live and recorded efforts with many of his fellow pacesetters in jazz music.
Gross has toured the world with the Mark Gross Quartet, Philip Harper, Nat Adderley
, Dave Holland
, Mulgrew Miller
, Nicholas Payton
, Delfeayo Marsalis
, Wynton Marsalis
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Nancy Wilson, Jimmy Heath
, Dizzy Gillespie Alumni Big Band, Village Vanguard
Jazz Orchestra, Tom Harrell
Big Band, Duke Ellington
Orchestra, Frank Foster
and the Loud Minority, Charles Mingus
Big Band, Freddie Hubbard
, Donald Harrison
, Mark Whitfield
, Joe Dukes, Captain Jack McDuff
, Joe Chambers
, Neal Smith, Cyrus Chestnut
, Regina Carter
, Lionel Hampton
, Stephon Harris, Walter Booker
, Jimmy Cobb
, Don Braden
, Vincent Gardner
, Lenora Zenzalai Helm, Marlon Saunders
, SEPIA, and Jann Parker to name a few. His professional relationships with these musicians and others have been long lasting and far-reaching.
Gross has performed on Broadway
several times, as well. He performed in Five Guys Named Moe
(1992-1993) based on the music of Louis Jordan
. Kat and the Kings
(1999-2000). This musical explores the joyous sounds that were born out of oppression during the 1950s in Cape Town, South Africa; Apartheid. Mark has also added to the exciting musical that showcased music of the same title, 'Swing!
(2000-2001).
that resounded through his parent's Baltimore
home. Gross' father was the Pastor of his hometown church Mt. Zion C.O.G.I.C. up until his passing February 1, 2007. After developing his interests in classical music at the Baltimore School for the Arts
, Gross studied one semester at Howard University
and four years at Berklee College of Music
. Gross has been consistently creating distinctive music. Berklee College of Music awarded him a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Performance. Two of Berklee's best professors, Joe Viola and Bill Pierce
, help fine tune Gross' musicianship. Upon his graduation in 1988, Gross began his professional musical caravan in Jazz.
Mark Gross (February 20, 1966) is a Baltimore-born jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
alto saxophonist. He studied at the Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
, graduating in 1988, then worked in the band of Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, performing in Five Guys Named Moe
Five Guys Named Moe
Five Guys Named Moe is a musical with a book by Clarke Peters and lyrics and music by Louis Jordan and others. The musical originated in the UK in 1990 at Theatre Royal Stratford East, running for over four years in the West End, and then premiering on Broadway in 1992...
on Broadway. He has since worked with a variety of other artists, including the bands of Delfeayo Marsalis
Delfeayo Marsalis
Delfeayo Marsalis is an American jazz trombonist and record producer.He is a member of the Marsalis family of jazz musicians: father Ellis Marsalis, Jr. , and brothers Branford Marsalis , Wynton Marsalis , and Jason Marsalis...
, Nat Adderley
Nat Adderley
Nathaniel Adderley was an American jazz cornet and trumpet player who played in the hard bop and soul jazz genres. He was the brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley....
and the Dave Holland Big Band.
Gross first recorded as a solo act with 1997's Preach Daddy, following it up with 2000's The Riddle of the Sphinx.
Career
Two-time Grammy award winner with the Dave HollandDave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....
Big Band, Gross swings and sings with soul and rhythm along today's jazz vanguard. He constantly pushes the music forward, while staying true to the elements of the classic sound. Gross has recorded on over 40 notable jazz recording, including Grammy winning projects by the Dave Holland Big Band - 'What Goes Around' on ECM Records, and 'Overtime' on Dare 2 Records. Gross has recorded 2 CDs under his own name to date. 'Preach Daddy' on King Records and 'Riddle of the Sphinx' on J Curve Records. His consistently professional musicianship has led to live and recorded efforts with many of his fellow pacesetters in jazz music.
Gross has toured the world with the Mark Gross Quartet, Philip Harper, Nat Adderley
Nat Adderley
Nathaniel Adderley was an American jazz cornet and trumpet player who played in the hard bop and soul jazz genres. He was the brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley....
, Dave Holland
Dave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....
, Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller is an American jazz pianist who performs in a number of jazz idioms. He began his career as member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.-Biography:...
, Nicholas Payton
Nicholas Payton
Nicholas Payton is a jazz trumpet player from New Orleans, Louisiana.-Biography:The son of bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton, he took up the trumpet at the age of four and by the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father...
, Delfeayo Marsalis
Delfeayo Marsalis
Delfeayo Marsalis is an American jazz trombonist and record producer.He is a member of the Marsalis family of jazz musicians: father Ellis Marsalis, Jr. , and brothers Branford Marsalis , Wynton Marsalis , and Jason Marsalis...
, Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Nancy Wilson, Jimmy Heath
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath , nicknamed Little Bird, is an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger. He is the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.-Biography:...
, Dizzy Gillespie Alumni Big Band, Village Vanguard
Village Vanguard
The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957.-History:Over 100 jazz...
Jazz Orchestra, Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell
Tom Harrell is a renowned American post-bop jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, composer and arranger.-Biography:Tom Harrell was born in Urbana, Illinois but moved to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of five. He started playing trumpet at eight and within five years, started playing gigs with...
Big Band, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
Orchestra, Frank Foster
Frank Foster (musician)
Frank Foster was an American tenor and soprano saxophonist, flautist, arranger, and composer. Foster collaborated frequently with Count Basie and worked as a bandleader from the early 1950s.-Biography:...
and the Loud Minority, Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
Big Band, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Donald Harrison
Donald Harrison
Donald Harrison, Jr. is an American jazz saxophonist from New Orleans, Louisiana.-Biography:Harrison studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Berklee College of Music. He played with Roy Haynes, Jack McDuff, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Terence Blanchard and Don Pullen in the...
, Mark Whitfield
Mark Whitfield
Mark Whitfield is an American hard bop and soul-jazz guitarist born in Syosset, New York, probably better known for his recordings as bandleader for both the Verve and Warner Bros. Records record labels...
, Joe Dukes, Captain Jack McDuff
Jack McDuff
"Brother" Jack McDuff was an American jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who was most prominent during the hard bop and soul jazz era of the 1960s, often performing with an organ trio.-Career:...
, Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers
Joe Chambers is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 70s Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Lou Donaldson, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Giuffre...
, Neal Smith, Cyrus Chestnut
Cyrus Chestnut
Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, songwriter, and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time Magazine, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and resists being...
, Regina Carter
Regina Carter
Regina Carter is an American jazz violinist. She is the cousin of famous jazz saxophonist James Carter.-Early life:...
, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Stephon Harris, Walter Booker
Walter Booker
Walter Booker was an American jazz musician. A native of Prairie View, Texas, Booker was a reliable bass player and an underrated stylist. His playing was marked by voice-like inflections, glissandos and tremolo techniques.-Biography:Booker moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1940s...
, Jimmy Cobb
Jimmy Cobb
-External links:* - includes full discography* * * * * * *...
, Don Braden
Don Braden
Don Braden is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Braden was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. He began playing tenor sax at age 13 and started playing professionally at 15. As a high schooler he played in the McDonald's All-American High School Jazz Band...
, Vincent Gardner
Vincent Gardner
Vincent Gardner is an American trombonist and composer.Gardner has released four albums on SteepleChase Records and also performs and records in a group with his brother, trumpeter Derrick Gardner....
, Lenora Zenzalai Helm, Marlon Saunders
Marlon Saunders
Marlon Saunders is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. A professor of voice at Berklee College of Music, Marlon has two solo recordings on his independent label, Black Honey Records: the improvisational A Groove So Deep: The Live Sessions and 2003's critically acclaimed Enter My Mind...
, SEPIA, and Jann Parker to name a few. His professional relationships with these musicians and others have been long lasting and far-reaching.
Gross has performed on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
several times, as well. He performed in Five Guys Named Moe
Five Guys Named Moe
Five Guys Named Moe is a musical with a book by Clarke Peters and lyrics and music by Louis Jordan and others. The musical originated in the UK in 1990 at Theatre Royal Stratford East, running for over four years in the West End, and then premiering on Broadway in 1992...
(1992-1993) based on the music of Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
. Kat and the Kings
Kat and the Kings
Kat and the Kings is a musical with a book and lyrics by David Kramer and music by Taliep Petersen.Set in late-1950s South Africa, it focuses on teenager Kat Diamond, who believes he's the best singer and dancer in District Six, a multi-racial slum in Cape Town...
(1999-2000). This musical explores the joyous sounds that were born out of oppression during the 1950s in Cape Town, South Africa; Apartheid. Mark has also added to the exciting musical that showcased music of the same title, 'Swing!
Swing!
Swing! is a musical conceived by Paul Kelly with music by various artists. It celebrates the music of the Swing era of jazz , including many well-known tunes by artists like Duke Ellington, William "Count" Basie, Benny Goodman and others...
(2000-2001).
Early life
Gross credits his prolific sound to the rich appreciation for Gospel musicGospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
that resounded through his parent's Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
home. Gross' father was the Pastor of his hometown church Mt. Zion C.O.G.I.C. up until his passing February 1, 2007. After developing his interests in classical music at the Baltimore School for the Arts
Baltimore School for the Arts
Baltimore School for the Arts is a public high school located in Baltimore, Maryland and is a part of its public school system. BSA offers concentrations in classical music, theater, dance, theater production and visual art...
, Gross studied one semester at Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
and four years at Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
. Gross has been consistently creating distinctive music. Berklee College of Music awarded him a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Performance. Two of Berklee's best professors, Joe Viola and Bill Pierce
Bill Pierce
Bill Pierce is an American jazz saxophonist.He played with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in the early 1980s and in Tony Williams's quintet in the mid-1980s to early 1990s...
, help fine tune Gross' musicianship. Upon his graduation in 1988, Gross began his professional musical caravan in Jazz.
External links
- Jazz Reach.org
- Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians entry for Mark Gross http://www.jazz.com/encyclopedia/gross-mark-mark-ivan-gross-sr