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Mark Isaacs

MARK ISAACS "A splendid musical mind" LOS ANGELES TIMES

Australian-based pianist-composer Mark Isaacs (b. 1958) has pursued a unique and demanding career path that has seen him gain international acclaim in both jazz and classical music. Such diversity was nurtured in the crucible of a highly musical family.

Mark's uncle was the legendary British jazz guitarist Ike Isaacs, who worked for many years with jazz violinist Stephane Grapelli and was on friendly terms with many of the biggest names in jazz. Duke Ellington came for dinner one time and there were visits from George Benson, Joe Pass, Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessel and many others. As Mark grew older he would have informal jams with some of the famous musicians who would visit the Isaacs household.

Another uncle was violinist Kelly Isaacs who throughout his London-based career was a distinguished soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. Through his “classical uncle” Mark was able to experience first-hand the highest level of the world classical scene, with connections to Yehudi Menuhin, the London Symphony Orchestra and others.

Mark's father is an accomplished jazz guitarist and songwriter who had one of his songs recorded and released by Petula Clark and his mother had been trained as a classical pianist as well as often singing jazz standards. His father was born in Rangoon, Burma and his mother in Calcutta, India, their forebears being of Baghdadi Jewish origins. They emigrated to London as young adults, where Mark was born. The family emigrated again to Australia when Mark was four.

Mark began piano studies at age five and it was soon discovered that he had perfect pitch. Beginning around age nine, Mark began to experiment with improvising on jazz standards. From age twelve Mark began a ferocious interest in classical composition and began to compose orchestral and chamber works which received high profile public performances and for which he won many awards and scholarships throughout his teens. At the age of 14 he performed the solo part in his own piano concerto on Australian national television. During those high school years he studied classical piano, composition, theory, counterpoint, orchestration, chamber music performance, jazz ensemble work and big band arranging in an intense program of classes and private lessons after school.

He began University studies in classical piano and composition initially in Sydney, while at the same time being recognised as one of the major emerging jazz players in Australia, recording his first jazz album as leader while barely out of his teens.

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2
Album Review

Resurgence: Duende

Read "Duende" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Australian pianist Mark Isaacs has hit a long stride with his band Resurgence, releasing the band's fourth recording Duende. His three previous recordings with Resurgence: Resurgence (ABC Jazz, 2007), Tell It Like It Is (ABC Jazz, 2010), and Aurora Aurora (Gracemusic, 2011) have progressively probed the edges of contemporary jazz, filling out the sound that one might consider “contemporary mainstream jazz." While lyrically and harmonically progressive, Isaac's music is immediately accessible. This is what separates it from a good deal ...

168
Album Review

Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band: Aurora

Read "Aurora" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


The last artistic musical movement in jazz to be given a meaningful name was the post-bop movement. Arising out of the mid-1960s as a unifying response to hard bop, modal, the avant-garde and free jazz, post-bop has fairly well dominated the most creative jazz made in the last 30 years. If post-bop has a ground zero, it is the recordings of the second great Miles Davis Quintet (Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams), either collectively or separately. ...

225
Album Review

Mark Isaacs: Aurora

Read "Aurora" reviewed by John Kelman


As Tell It Like It Is (ABC Jazz, 2009), amply proved, sometimes it's better to work with local musicians who, through regular touring, establish a singular collective voice. That's not to say Resurgence (ABC Jazz, 2007) was bad--it's hard to imagine anything with bassist Jay Anderson, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and saxophonist Bob Sheppard as lacking in the firepower department. Still, when looking at Australia-based pianist Mark Isaacs' discography of the past decade, the standout albums have invariably been those featuring ...

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Album Review

Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band: Tell It Like It Is

Read "Tell It Like It Is" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Australian pianist Mark Isaacs has been recording forward-thinking progressive jazz for the past 25 years. His new millennium recordings have garnered popular response, including Closer (Naxos, 2000), Keeping the Standards (Vorticity Music, 2003), Visions (Vorticity Music, 2006), and Resurgence (ABC, 2007). During the last decade, Isaacs has been approaching a new assertive sound that unifies the more scripted elements of adult contemporary jazz with the improvisatory elements of the music's first 100 years.

Tell It Like It is was recorded ...

488
Album Review

Mark Isaacs Resurgence Band: Tell It Like It Is

Read "Tell It Like It Is" reviewed by John Kelman


Sometimes it's better to work on home turf, with familiar musicians. Mark Isaacs' studio disc, Resurgence (ABC Jazz, 2007), paired the Australian pianist and guitarist James Muller--another Australian talent deserving of far greater attention--with American heavy hitters including drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist Jay Anderson and saxophonist Bob Sheppard. But as fine as the relative miniatures of Resurgence were, Isaacs' revamped Resurgence Band and the extended workouts of the live Tell It Like It Is far surpass anything on the previous ...

226
Album Review

Mark Isaacs: Resurgence

Read "Resurgence" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Australian pianist and composer Mark Isaacs has done more than most any other jazz musician to seal the fault line between serious modern jazz improvisation and “contemporary jazz or “adult oriented jazz. I tend to classify the former as the jazz father's and earlier genre traditionalists (bebop, hard bop, modal) and the latter as well-behaved, unobtrusive music made by nameless popular performers, selling millions of copies.

Isaacs, with every release, has refined his systematic approach to post-modernity jazz ...

268
Album Review

Mark Isaacs: Resurgence

Read "Resurgence" reviewed by John Kelman


After two albums exploring jazz standards and popular contemporary music--Keeping the Standards (Vorticity, 2004) and --Visions (Vorticity, 2006)--Australian pianist Mark Isaacs returns to original composition on Resurgence. A fixture on the Sydney scene, Isaacs has recruited his dream band for a strong program of contemporary mainstream jazz..

Isaac's American compatriots--bassist Jay Anderson, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and, on select tracks, woodwind multi-instrumentalists Bob Sheppard and Steve Tavaglione--have often intersected, but not all together in one room at the same time. Isaacs' ...

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Music Industry

Mark Isaacs CD "Closer" (Naxos) getting rave reviews on All About Jazz and elsewhere!

Mark Isaacs CD "Closer" (Naxos) getting rave reviews on All About Jazz and elsewhere!

Source: All About Jazz

Mark Isaacs Closer (Naxos Jazz 86065-2) -- Released October 2000

Australian composer/pianist Mark Isaacs makes music for listeners to “feel", whether big, sweeping emotions, or subtle ephemeral light touches. With the eight self-penned tracks on Closer, Isaacs - with terrific accompaniment from four fellow Aussies including the remarkable James Muller on guitar -- establishes an intuitive ambience of beguiling beauty and colour. It's a CD that demands the listener get 'Closer'.

The versatile Isaacs is among Australia's leading composers/musicians and ...

MARK ISAACS•QUOTES

“The work of an artist capable of matching the rich elements of classical composition with the flowing rhythms of jazz . . the product of a splendid musical mind” LOS ANGELES TIMES

“propelled by a winning combination of sharp rhythms and lyrical melodies” NEW YORK TIMES

“The great modern Australian pianist/composer is no stranger to Moscow audiences . . pure, crisp and vehement . . I never thought that jazz was still so much alive” MOSCOW TRIBUNE

"Monstrously brilliant....a prodigious group driven by a charismatic genius.... put [Isaacs] in a pair of iridescent orange Converse basketball boots and he becomes a stage demon.... a composer and musician utterly unencumbered by boundaries who has a breathtaking aptitude for making feeling and experience audible" AUSTRALIAN STAGE ONLINE

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Duende

Gracemusic
2013

buy

Aurora

Gracemusic
2011

buy

Resurgence

ABC Jazz
2007

buy

Visions

Vorticity Music
2006

buy

For the Road

From: Aurora
By Mark Isaacs

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