Hello Folks,
Just had the pleasure of doing an interview with WVUM host Goon Green for his radio show. We talked about my new release as well as my thoughts on teaching and performing. You can listen to that on WVUM Sunday night 6-8. If you’re in the Miami area, they’re 90.5 fm or you can find them HERE
Big thanks to Ed Blanco of WDNA and contributing writer for ‘All About Jazz’ for writing a review of my latest release.
You can find that HERE
Hello All,
Wanted to let you know that one of my songs is now the first single from SONY recording artist Roxana Amed. Tumbleweed is featured on her upcoming record ONTOLOGY. She wrote wonderful lyrics for the song and has a phenomenal band backing her, Marin Bejerano on piano, Aaron Lebos on guitar, Edward Perez on bass, and Ludwig Afonso on drums.
You can find it here:
So… I just started looking into if it’s possible to put a track or two on spotify since I have an artist page there. I came upon two articles on the subject
This article from 2018 says Spotify was in beta to let artists upload their own music and pay out at a 50% rate (apparently comparable to the deal the labels get)
This article from 2019 says Spotify was rolling that up and wanted to “focus on… (yada yada)”. Wouldn’t I like to know the reason behind them bailing on the idea.
Just for those who don’t know, you have to pay a middleman to give them a digital file and they in turn, give that file to Spotify. And this is necessary because?
Hello Everyone,
I have finally decided to let my record run free into the world. There are a number of reasons that it’s taken this long and I will mention them later, but for those who don’t have that kind of time, I’ll just say “It’s here”
If you missed that, here is the link
The record features drumming by Damion Reid, whom I’ve known and played with (when we’ve had the chance) for over 20 years. He is a force to be reckoned with, requiring the respect one would give to storm rated in categories. His approach has broadened over years of playing in musical situations that have tested his boundaries. I will say that playing with him is ultimately rewarding.
This record also features bassist and friend Matt Brewer. I met Matt when we were roommates in Harlem years ago and not only been in awe of his prodigious talents but he was an incredibly dedicated practitioner of the music. I still have a memory of him, late night, working through a piece from Well-Tempered Clavier on the fender rhodes in the basement living room. I hadn’t had a chance to play with him in years before this recording, only admiring his talents when listening to all the projects he’s asked to do. It was sheer joy to interact with him on this particular day. I am forever grateful to have created music with these two masters.
Thanks also goes to David Stoller who recorded and mixed the One Day at Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in Queens. Just down the road from my first apartment in NYC. Seems like another world to have returned 16 years later to record in the neighborhood. It might be cliché to claim someones studio feels like ‘home’ but I will use that statement here for lack of something more fitting. It is a sanctuary that allows one to focus on the act of creativity without distraction. Dave’s manner in the studio is fitting for this environment he’s created. He’s there when you need him and tending to all other aspects so the music is all that is left to concern yourself with. I can truly say that his studio leaves its mark on a record in so many positive and subtle ways.
I’ll write more about this record soon. I just wanted to make sure the message got out that it is finally free to be listened to and to express my thanks to these gentlemen for sharing their talents.
Until next time,
Mark Small
Hello Everyone,
I had the pleasure of performing again with two of my favorite musicians, John Hart and Martin Bejerano. We were asked to perform a concert for a live taping which was then aired for the CAP program out of Coral Gables, FL. They asked us to present a mostly Brubeck program in celebration of Dave Brubeck’s 100 birthday year.
You can see the concert here
Hope you enjoy,
Mark
Hello Everyone,
If you’re staying in like myself right about now, then you may have realized that we’ll all be this way for a little while. I decided I’d take this as a chance to complete all the little things that regular life hasn’t allowed me the precious time to do. One of those was to post charts of my tunes on this website. Charts that date back to 2007 (and some earlier but recorded around that time). I hope this is a little something to help with the boredom if you were looking for something to practice, check out, or just give you ideas.
I’m also trying to find the best way to release a trio record that I had done and one option is to post it to Bandcamp (because it’s one of the few sites I believe in what they’re doing as far as I can tell). I will post my experience with both Apple Music and Spotify making me prove who I was while they played my music on their platforms and gave the credit to someone else with the same name. But that’s a tale for another time.
In the coming days, I’ll be trying to add to this blog because I haven’t had the time to with teaching at 4 different institutions. Although, I’m still teaching at 3 currently (online), not having to commute sure does free up some time. I hope to hear from some of you as to what you’re doing to stay busy and happy (or relaxed and mildly entertained).
All the best and do your part to help put this in the past quickly,
Mark Small
Hello everyone,
Just had an amazing time this morning performing at the radio station WDNA's jazz gallery in Miami. I had the pleasure of performing with a new trio that I recently formed with the incredible guitarist John Hart and long time friend and amazing pianist Martin Bejerano. You can hear this performance and a little bit of interview on the livestream link from the radio station by clicking this link
I hope you enjoy and as always, let me know what you think. We're hoping to record sometime soon so I'll keep you posted.
All the best,
Mark
Hello Everyone,
I have the distinct pleasure of performing again this year for the WDNA jazz Festival in Miami with two of my favorite bands. On April 26th, I'll be performing with Scone Cash Players at noon on the Government Center Stage. On April 28th, I'll be performing with the Tim Jago Group at 1:30 on the Bayside Marina Stage in downtown Miami.
These are both phenomenal groups so please join us and catch more music after each of these bands.
Hello Folks,
Been quite busy between performing other people's music, teaching, and booking music for a venue. I finally had time to get my trio record mixed at The Samurai Hotel Recording Studio. I think David Stoller did a supremely amazing job with it and I couldn't be happier. Next stop is seeing if there is a home for this music before I consider putting it out myself. I'm thrilled to have reconnected with old friends Damion Reid and Matt Brewer to bring some of my music to life. Despite knowing how well the play, they still managed to surprise me with what they did with my songs. Big thanks to them as well.
More news to come,
Mark
I recently performed at the WDNA performance gallery with my quartet. The configuration was a new one for me as my guitarist had an unfortunate car accident and was not able to perform. Instead of the classic organ quartet with guitar, sax, and drums, I chose to switch out the guitar for one of my favorite pianist, Martin Bejerano.
This video features:
Mark Small - sax
Martin Bejerano - piano
Derek Fairholm - organ
Michael Piolet - drums
The idea reminded me of when I used to go see Brad Mehldau, Sam Yahel, and Darren Beckett at Small's club in NYC.
Taylor and Chris reminded me about this track I had recorded on a while back. Had completely forgotten about this and it was really nice to be surprised by my own playing. Thought I'd just leave this here for you guys to check out
Here is another video from the same session with Nick Vayenas, Asen Doykin, Josh Allen, and Evan Hyde. This one is an old composition of mine that I reworked for two horns. Hope you enjoy
Hello Everyone,
This is the third video from my session with Nick Vayenas. This is a song of his titled "staircase".
Hope you enjoy,
Mark
Hello Everyone,
Here is another video that Nick Vayenas finished editing from our session featuring myself, Nick, Asen Doykin, Josh Allen, and Evan Hyde.
This is a beautiful and subtle composition by pianist Asen Doykin. For me, it brings to mind classic compositions by Wayne Shorter with its harmonic colors and floating melody.
I just finished a full day of recording with two old friends, Damión Reid and Matt Brewer, at the Samurai Hotel recording studio in NYC. It was beautiful to see these guys bring my trio compositions to life and add the unexpected twists that made them unique to this group. I can’t thank them enough for playing this music as well as David Stoller who captured this performance in his beautiful studio. A big thank you to Nick Vayenas for coming out and capturing video of this date. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together.
This session was an impromptu decision I made, knowing I would be in NYC in a months time. Setting a deadline such as this really pushed me to I called these friends, booked the studio, wrote music, and worked around quite a few obstacles to see this through. I’ve learned so much from the experience and it has stoked a fire to do it again and go deeper into the music.
The connection with these musicians goes back over a decade when I met and played duos with Damión in Boston for hours at a time, day after day. I met Matt when we were roommates living in Harlem when he was still pretty new to NYC. He sounded so amazing then that you would have thought he had been in the city for ages.
Right now I'm getting ready to see Winter Jazz Fest in NYC before heading back south. It will be a special treat to see so many old friends that I haven’t had a chance to catch up with in years. More about that when I write again. Hope you all are having a great start to 2017!
I was invited to my good friend Nick Vayenas to his new studio in Astoria, Queens to record with a few old friends from both Miami and New York. This video features a song I had recorded with pianist Asen Doykin for a collective band called "Openended".
This rendition features Nick on trombone, Asen on piano, Josh Allen on bass, and Evan Hyde on drums.
Hope you enjoy,
Mark
Hello Everyone,
I've posted a few new videos on Youtube of two very different trios that I've been playing with. The first is called Rest/Unrest, led by drummer John Yarling, is a tribute to the music of Mark Helias, NYC bassist and composer. This trio is myself on saxophone, Josh Allen on bass, and John Yarling on drums.
The other is a collective group called the Language Trio which features Rodolfo Zuniga on drums, Josh allen and myself. These videos are of a recent tour to Costa Rica where we performed at "El Sotano" in the capital, San Jose.
Hope you enjoy them,
Mark
with Language Trio:
with Rest/Unrest
Hello Everyone,
A project that I began last Christmas with my good friend Chris Klaxton has finally been given a home on the internet. The project, titled VonBerwick, features mostly freely improvised music and a few loosely composed pieces from a collaborative cast of characters. To date, the band has featured Chris on trumpet, myself on saxophone, Michael Effenberger on Fender Rhodes and effects, Sunniva Brynnel on accordion, Eric Von Oeyen on drums, and Eric Klaxton on saxophone.
The recording was done by Kendall Moore in beautiful First Federated Church in South Berwick Maine. Having recorded the project in this church and recently been listing to the fascinating life of Hildegard Von Bingen, we named the project with a slight nod to her.
Much of this music is as much about what the listener brings to it with their imagination as it is what we imagined one would experience. Think of it as more of a dialogue with you than the spoon fed music that permeates the radio. We plan to continue recording and adding new collaborators in the future. The playlist will be ever changing from the wealth of material we have from these sessions. We'd love to know what you think.
You can find us at:
http://vonberwick.bandcamp.com
This site has been completely redesigned by the phenomenally talented artist Megan Chartier . Check out new dates, new streamable music, and new images! Check back for more information about purchasing new material as well.
Thanks for visiting,
Mark
