Wavetone Records and Mark Egan: News

A Chat with Mark Egan about Truth Be Told

by Martin Simpson

Mark, you recently sent me a copy of your most recent release, Truth Be Told. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had this album in my cd drive and I’ve actually got it playing right now! I’d like to talk to you about this incredible album and give you a platform to explain the work.

M.E. Thanks for listening Martin and glad that you like the new recording. It's great to know that it is getting play in your part of the world.

This is quite a departure from your previous releases and shows you in groove and solo modes. You mentioned in the sleeve notes that it was a lot of fun and THAT is clearly audible – some incredible interaction was happening and you were obviously all coaxing the best performances out of each other weren’t you?

M.E. Truth Be Told is somewhat of a departure for my solo projects. Of the last six solo recordings I feel this recent one is the most intense and powerful project so far. It all has to do with the players and compositions but mostly the players. It was great fun and a very intense three days. Yes, we were all very focused on the interplay between each other and one thing led to another.

All of you have known each other and played together from time to time over the last 28 years but this was the first time that all of you came together as a band – was engineer, Phil Magnotti also ‘hand picked’ for this particular project?

M.E. This was the first time that all of us came together as a band and they were incredible sessions.
Bill and I have played with our group Elements and Bill's bands over the years. I met keyboardist Mitch Forman when I first came to New York in 1976. We've recorded and played live for many years. He now lives in California so we haven't had the chance as much which made this recording a great reunion. I've played live in NY and recorded with Vinnie Colaiuta on Bill's Soul Grass records and I always love his expression on the drums and the hook up that we have. He is a bass players dream in that he grooves so deeply while having extreme flexibility and a creative mind that can take the music anywhere. Percussionist Roger Squitero is also a great player and friend and I added his playing at my studio after the basic recording days. As I lived with the tracks I started to hear the need for percussion.
Phil Magnotti was also hand picked for this project. We have worked together many times over the years on various projects both in New York and in Japan. Phil was the engineer on a CTI record project which was a live audio and DVD video recording. It featured Mike Stern, Dennis Chambers, Mino Cinelu, Randy Brecker and Bob Berg.

The actual recording of Truth Be Told was done in three days at Avatar Studios but how long did the album take from initial conception to final Mastering?

M.E. The concept and compositions for the project were started in January 2009. I spent three months composing and arranging the music. Some of the compositions I had previously written but never recorded on my own records. The music was recorded in New York city during June 15,16,17. We finished post production (keyboard overdubs, bass melodies, sax section overdubs, mixing and mastering in November 2009.
During the entire period I was also quite busy on a worldwide tour with Bill Evan's group Soul Grass as well as the CTI all star band in Europe.
For the preproduction I put together some basic demos that I recorded at my studio as well as charts of all the songs. I spent a great amount of time arranging the songs and doing as much pre production as possible since I knew that we had a lot of music to cover in three days. Most of the decisions for forms, solo orders, tempos and rough timings were done in the pre production phase which made the actual sessions run smoothly. At the sessions we played the songs down for the first time and very shortly after started to record takes. Most of the final takes were the 1st or second takes.
Mitch added some additional keyboard parts on the third day and Bill added some harmony sax parts as well.

Let’s go through the disc track by track and you can tell us what went into each recording, starting with;-

Frog Legs

M.E. Frog Legs is a song that I composed in 1998 and never recorded on my own record. It was recorded on a Lew Soloff record, Raibow Mountain as well as a record with Jeff Ciampa, House of Mirrors. It's a simple funk tune that I thought would be fun in this quartet format. My original bass line was sort of a New Orleans style line but when Vinnie started to play it down I listened closely to his kick drum and came up with a bass line that complemented his pattern. I chose to have the first solo since I wanted the cd to be a bass feature as much as possible in a musical way.
Bill over dubbed a horn section and Mitch overdubbed a few keyboard parts.

Gargoyle

M.E. This song was written by Ron Miller, a great composer from Miami Florida. We have played a lot over the years and Ron was the professor of Jazz Composition at the University of Miami where I studied in the early 1970's.
Ron is a prolific composer and I always wanted to record this song Gargoyle and thought that this group could take it someplace. Again Vinnie was the driving force and this is a great vehicle for Bill Evans to really stretch out on his solo. I like the unison line and it reminds me of a Herbie Hancock/Headhunters style song.

Truth Be Told

M.E. The title track is a song that I wrote for these particular players. It started as a Garage Band demo and then was transfered to MOTU Performer where I wrote the bass melody line and harmony. At the session I played the groove and later overdubbed the melody doubled with the keyboard the first time, then on the repeat Bill Evans doubles it with tenor sax. The bass line is influenced by James Brown and Bootsy Collins in particular.

Sea Saw

M.E. Sea Saw was written a few years ago and I thought that this would be a good vehicle for the band.
We recorded this on the first day, the fifth song of the day which was a lot to accomplish in that amount of time.
This song is more laid back than other songs on the record but I thought that it has a loose feel and would be fun for everyone to improvise over. I extended the end vamp for Vinnie to play over and his solo is amazing..

Cafe Risque

M.E. Cafe Risque is another song that I wrote for this band as a soprano saxophone feature.
The bass line is inspired from an old Maceo Parker record called Maceo and the Kings Men. The bassist is Bernard Odum and I highly recommend all bassist interested in playing funk to give it a listen. It's James Brown band after they had a parting of ways and it is sooo funky. Jaco Pastorius originally told me about it.
There is a middle developmental section that also gives Vinnie some solo space. I played my Pedulla 5 string Fretless on this track and overdubbed another 5 string melody on the bridge of the song.

Shadow Play

M.E. This song was written by Mitch Forman and is a fretless feature. I had heard a CD of a group that Mitch is a member called Metro and they had recorded this song which I thought would be a nice ballad for this record.
I overdubbed and doubled the bass melody as well as the solo. Mitch added some beautiful orchestrations to the track which made it come to life.

Blue Launch

M.E. This is a fun song that I wrote for this session. The head of the song is written around a bass line in 5/4
After the head the eighth note pulse is constant and we go into a shuffle blues with Keyboard and sax solos. At the end of the song Vinnie has another extended solo which he takes over the top.

Rhyme or Reason

M.E. Rhyme or reason was written for the session and was composed on my upright bass. I was playing around and came up with a little snippit of an idea and continued developing it. This is a trio vehicle which leads into a drum and sax improvisation where Bill plays a very inspired solo being fueled by Vinnie's incredible power.

Blue Rain

M.E. Blue Rain is a song that I wrote a year before this session and thought that it would be a nice peice to improvise over. It was inspired by the John Coltrane song, Blue Trane, so this is a play on words, Blue Rain...
This was the first song that we recorded as I thought that it would be a good starting point for the sessions, not too difficult. I recorded a fretted bass on the basic track then overdubbed the solo on my 5 string fretless Pedulla bass.

Pepe'

M.E. Pepe' is a song that I started in 1974 with the bass line to the melody and I never finished the song.
As I was conceptualizing the record I remembered the bass line and added a melody and arranged it for the quartet.
This was a lot of fun to play and was a trio improvisation which ends with another Vinnie drum solo.
I really feel that as much as this record is a bass record I also think that it is the Vinnie record, in a great way. He is so featured and has so much room and is playing so strong........

After Thought

M.E. The concept of After Thought, another play on words, is about the place you reach when you go beyond thinking and you are in a pure mind state. (whatever that is...) It features the 5 string fretless in an indian sort of ambiance. Mitch added great orchestrations to this including the Indian voices (samples). Roger Squitero also played great colors and the Udu drum. The sound of this track is a place that I like to visit as heard on other tracks of my previous recordings.

I have to ask this question – do you have an affinity with the colour Blue? After all, there are two tracks on this album with blue in the title, there’s lots of blues in the sleeve design and you also recorded a track with another friend of mine (Edo Castro) called Blue Asia!!!

M.E. I love the color blue although my favorite color is green, like my Pedulla basses.
There are a lot of Blue colors on the cover and inside of the cd jacket. When I looked at all of the song titles I noticed a lot of the word blue in titles but went with it. Edo Castro is a great friend and bassist and yes, Blue Asia, more Blue.

The cover design was done by Kio Griffith but I’m sure you had a hand in the artwork!!!

M.E. Yes, I usually have input on the artwork since I am releasing these projects on my own label. I prefer to let the graphic designers go and create after I give them a few conceptual ideas. For this cover I wanted to use this photo which is from a tour in Spain in March of 2009 shortly before the recording session. We also tried some abstract graphic ideas but Kio's treatment of the front cover photo was a nice starting point. I supplied him with photos from the session and he came up with the inside art.

I expect at the end of the sessions, you all talked about the possibility of doing a follow up album – when your schedules allow of course!!!

M.E. Yes, everyone wants to get together again and continue where we left off....
Hopefully we can get everyone in the same room for three or four days in a row. It's difficult because all the players are very busy and all over the globe...

You’re quite a prolific composer – on average, how many works do you compose during a year or does it vary widely?

M.E. My composing varies widely. I am always recording ideas when I practice. I have a discman set up in my practice area and often times I start my practice session by just improvising and often come up with ideas that have later become songs. I always like to be working on a new composition and it comes in waves of inspiration. The important thing that I have found is to recognize an idea and to stay with and develope it even if I have no idea what I'll use it for.

I’m sure you’ve already got plans in the pipeline for your next album - is that going to be a Mark Egan solo studio album or something with John Abercrombie or a live album - could you give us a hint?

M.E. At the moment I am thinking about doing another quartet recording with these same players. We only scratched the surface on Truth Be Told...

Thanks for speaking to us Mark.

M.E. Martin, it's my pleasure! All the best, Mark

For immediate release

Bassist Mark Egan Showcases New Band On Truth Be Told,
Wavetone Release Features Bill Evans, Mitch Forman and Vinnie Colaiuta

One of the premier electric bassists of contemporary jazz, Mark Egan has distinguished himself over the past 30 years as an in-demand session player, valued sideman, prolific composer and respected leader in his own right. On Truth Be Told, Egan reunites with longtime colleagues Mitch Forman (keyboards) Bill Evans (saxophones) and Roger Squitero (percussion). The powerhouse quartet is fueled by drummer extraordinaire Vinnie Colaiuta, who brings his considerable chops to bear on funk-fusion offerings like “Gargoyle,” “Café Risque,” the uptempo burner “Rhyme or Reason,” the hard-hitting Mahavishnu flavored “Pepe” and the slamming title track.

While Egan has been noted for his remarkably melodic fretless bass work since his days with the Pat Metheny Group (from 1977-1980), the groove-oriented Truth Be Told represents another aspect of his playing not normally associated with him. “Before I joined the Pat Metheny Group I was playing mostly R&B in New York both live in clubs as well as in the studios,” he recalls. “When I first came to New York I was the original bass player in the 24th Street Band, which was a progressive groove playing band with Steve Jordan on drums, Hiram Bullock on guitar and Clifford Carter on keyboards. I wasn’t focused on playing fretless bass then and was heavily influenced by groups such as Weather Report, Miles Davis, The Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Stuff and everything that was happening in the mid ‘70s in New York. And I had a strong foundation in funk from studying at the University of Miami with Jaco Pastorius, who introduced me to great groove bass players like Bernard Odom with Maceo and the Kings Men, Bootsy Collins with James Brown and James Jamerson, who was the bassist for most of the classic Motown recordings. So that’s a big part of my background, though some people wouldn’t know it.” Egan reveals another motivation for wanting to deal more in funk and fusion on Truth Be Told. “Knowing the potential of having Vinnie on the session, I wanted to record more groove-oriented music with a progressive edge. So I wrote with him in mind, creating some rhythmic vamps at the end of certain pieces that Vinnie could really stretch over. And he just killed it!” Colaiuta unleashes with a fury at the tag of the urgent jamming vehicle “Blue Launch” and also on the powerhouse “Rhyme or Reason,” which features an incendiary tenor sax-drums breakdown with Bill Evans that elevates the track. Elsewhere, Colaiuta ignites the hard-hitting, odd-metered “Pepe” with his highly charged drumming, slams with authority on the funky title track and expertly grooves the soulful Stuff-influenced opener “Frog Legs” as well as the highly syncopated “Café Risque.” Adds Egan, “I also wanted to make sure I had a lot of stretching room in these compositions for Bill and Mitch, who are both such great soloists, while also leaving room for my bass solos and groove interplay.”

He succeeds on all counts, creating music that is brimming with challenging, tightly executed heads yet full of urgent, free blowing solos. Evans distinguishes himself throughout with typically bracing solos on both tenor and soprano saxophones while Forman deftly alternates between piano, Fender Rhodes and synths to provide a myriad of colors, textures and thoughtful orchestrations, along with some heated solos of his own. Egan grooves mightily throughout on fretted bass while his distinctive fretless resounds with singing tones on the soothing, Elements styled “See Saw,” the romantic Mitch Forman ballad “Shadow Play,” the lyrical “Blue Rain” and the introspective, Indian flavored closer, “After Thought.” “The overall tone of this record is coming more from an electric Miles Davis/Weather Report point of view,” says Egan. “There’s a much more aggressive attitude here and we're ‘going for it’. I didn’t want to put any limitations on this project at all because all of the players in their own right are incredibly talented soloists and leaders. I just wanted to let Bill, Vinnie and Mitch go play and let the pieces fall where they may.” And they wail with impunity on this killer outing, the latest triumph in the ever-evolving career of the prodigious bassist-composer. Egan’s distinctive fretless bass sound has graced countless jazz and pop albums as well as award-winning movie and television soundtracks. A charter member of the Pat Metheny Group, he has played on multi-platinum-selling recordings by Sting, Arcadia and Joan Osborne and has also recorded with a wide variety of artists from pop stars like Roger Daltry, Sophie B. Hawkins, Marianne Faithfull, Judy Collins, Cyndi Lauper and Art Garfunkel to jazz notables like David Sanborn, John McLaughlin, Gato Barbieri, Pat Martino, Jim Hall, Mark Murphy and Larry Coryell. A member of the Gil Evans Orchestra for 13 years, Egan has also racked up seven albums as a leader and ten as a co-leader of Elements, the band he formed in 1982 with his Pat Metheny Group bandmate, drummer Danny Gottlieb. Truth Be Told is his fifth release as a leader on his own Wavetone Records label (including 2001 Freedom Town, 2006’s As We Speak and reissues of his 1985 landmark, Mosaic, and 1993’s Beyond Words).

I just finished my sixth solo recording project at Avatar Studios in New York on June 15,16,17.

We recorded all original compositions in a quartet with:

BILL EVANS-sax
MITCH FORMAN-Kbds
VINNIE COLAIUTA-Drums.

We later added percussion at our Electric Fields Studio with the great ROGER SQUITERO.

I feel very fortunate to have been able to record with these incredibly gifted musicians.

The high energy sessions produced eleven songs and we are now in the process of mixing, mastering and completing artwork.
The CD will be officially released in stores on March 16, 2010.

The new recording will be titled Mark Egan "TRUTH BE TOLD".

Please stay tuned for more details.

MAHAVISHNU RE-DEFINED

Mark has just appeared on a new ESC Records Mahavishnu tribute with a group led by Italian guitarist wizard Gianfranco Continenza.
"Gianfranco Continenza is an extraordinary musician and one of the hottest guitar players in Italy.
For the John McLaughlin classic One Word he is joined by former Pat Metheny member Mark Egan on bass, his long time partners Alessandro Centofanti on keyboards and Walter Martino on drums. These four musicians 
can handle the pure energy level of the original track One Word." ESC records
Check it out at: www.esc-records.de

“As otherworldly and rare as the sonar call of whales and dolphins, sonorous tones in an ancient sea that connect us to something eternal and greater than ourselves.

Egan's melodic approach to the electric bass is unforgettable and wraps the soul of the listener in a cloak of aural beauty...
His highly innovative musical voice, seemingly rising up from the very core of the universe itself, takes the ear on a deeply moving four-dimensional journey through time and space...a melodic and rhythmic odyssey that leaves no doubt as to the extraordinary musicianship and level of sensitivity involved.

Mark Egan is an enduring gift to the world of music that will be spoken about for generations to come, and his music is a must listen for anyone who wants to hear the bass find its quintessential voice and return home.”

-Katherine Schimmel Baki
Author and Musician
Host of “The Mystic Pen Series”
Host of the upcoming new series: “Live From the Shed: Exploring the Enduring Power of Music.”
Wild River Review
http://wildriverreview.com

New...
Wavetone Records has just released the classic Mark Egan recording "Beyond Words".
This All Star lineup features Bill Evans, Danny Gottlieb, Clifford Carter, Toninho Horta, Don Alias and Manolo Badrena in a contemporary jazz setting. This re-issue has been remastered.

Wavetone is producing a new release, Elements "Blown Away".

It has been out of print for many years and we decided to make it available to our listeners.
We will be adding bonus tracks from the original sessions that have never been released along with new artwork.

BLown Away will be released in
the spring of 2008 andavailable at this website.

MARK EGAN “As We Speak”!

Legendary bassist releases (2)CD Super Trio recording!

Wavetone records announces a new release from legendary bassist, composer, producer and arranger. This all-star trio recording, featuring
JOHN ABERCROMBIE on guitar, and DANNY GOTTLIEB on drums, showcases Mark in a highly creative electric jazz trio setting.

This incredible 2 CD set contains that rare combination of stellar compositions, world-class musicianship and virtuoso solos from some of the most influential improvising musicians in history. "As We Speak" is one of the most important bass recordings of our time, and an absolute must for any creative musician.

“….A daring, highly interactive trio outing from one of the premier electric bassists of contemporary jazz, a high water mark in his recording career…”
Bill Milkowski


Available at this website. Free Shipping for U.S. orders!

Saxophonist Bill Evans has just released his recent recording , Soul Grass, on BHM Records.
This groundbreaking music features: Bela Fleck, Victor Wooten, Stuart Duncan, Vinnie Colaiuta, Sam Bush, Bruce Hornsby, Jerry Douglas, John Schofield, Clifford Carter, David Charles, Pat Bergeson,
David Kikowski and yours truly.
Check this music out!

Available at www.billevanssax.com