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FOUR

Continuing a long tradition of wonderful jazz saxophone quartet recordings FOUR adds trumpet, trombone, piano, guitar, bass and drums for a smorgasbord of new tunes by the amazing composer, Mark Watkins. 

FOUR is Mark Watkins, soprano saxophone; Ray Smith, alto saxophone; Sandon Mayhew, tenor saxophone; and Jon Gudmundson, baritone saxophone. 

They are joined by Derrick Gardner, trumpet (Count Basie Band); Vincent Gardner, trombone (lead trombone with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra); Justin Nielsen, piano; Corey Christiansen, guitar; Braun Kahn, bass; and Kobie Watkins, drums (Sonny Rollins). (See Gordon Goodwin’s review in the FOUR bio and Mark’s own notes.) 

The tunes are significantly different from each other and offer a varied tour of styles with the inventive twist of Mark Watkins. Perhaps it should be noted that Mark wrote and recorded the tunes after he went completely blind. This is one unique recording not to be missed in the plethora of new recordings coming out.


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Album Review

Mark Watkins: FOUR + Six

Read "FOUR + Six" reviewed by Chris May


We had out of nowhere, we had straight outta Compton. Here comes straight out of Brigham Young University, Idaho, where saxophone quartet FOUR leader Mark Watkins has been director of jazz studies since 1999. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints may not the most abundant source of high-grade jazz--one assumes that Watkins is a member--but FOUR + Six proves it can be. Who would have thunk it? But jazz is a broad church and the album is proof ...

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Recording

Mark Watkins Enhances His Celebrated Saxophone Quartet With 'Four + Six,' To Be Released March 29 On Jazz Hang Records

Mark Watkins Enhances His Celebrated Saxophone Quartet With 'Four + Six,' To Be Released March 29 On Jazz Hang Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Mark Watkins envelops his long-running saxophone quartet in lush, billowing textures on FOUR + Six, the band’s deliriously tuneful sixth album, set for a March 29 release on Jazz Hang Records. Watkins augments the core quartet of himself (soprano and tenor saxophones), Sandon Mayhew (tenor sax), Ray Smith (alto sax), and Jon Gudmundson (baritone sax) with Corey Christiansen (guitar); a three-piece rhythm section of Justin Nielsen (piano), Braun Khan (bass), and Kobie Watkins (no relation, drums); and the esteemed Gardner ...

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Recording

Bay Area Band RDL+ Have Released Compilation Featuring Tracks From The Five Albums Recorded During Their Four-Year Long Residency

Bay Area Band RDL+ Have Released Compilation Featuring Tracks From The Five Albums Recorded During Their Four-Year Long Residency

Source: GoMedia PR

On August 22, RDL +, one of the Bay Area’s most prolific bands, will simultaneously release five CDs of music recorded during their four year-long residency at Oakland’s Studio Grand. Beginning in 2015, the residency resulted in five curated discs that contain a vast array of musical styles ranging from free jazz to Brazilian to classical, always maintaining an aesthetic stemming from traditional jazz. A compilation CD, Bay Area Bridges Compilation, featuring tracks from all five albums, will be released ...

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Performance / Tour

World-Renowned Smoke Jazz Club Begins Spring With Four Of Today’s Leading Pianists, Album Releases By Bobby Watson And Eric Reed, And More Throughout March

World-Renowned Smoke Jazz Club Begins Spring With Four Of Today’s Leading Pianists, Album Releases By Bobby Watson And Eric Reed, And More Throughout March

Source: AMT Public Relations

Described as “the most genuine, congenial and best-run jazz club in the city (Huffington Post),” New York’s Smoke Jazz Club presents a stellar line-up of some of jazz’s greatest artists during March. Four leading pianists return to the SMOKE stage: Renee Rosnes (Mar 2-5),Eric Reed celebrating his SMOKE Sessions album release (Mar 9-12), Jacky Terrasson (Mar 16-19), and George Cables (Mar 30-Apr 2). The legendary tenor George Coleman celebrates his 88th birthday with a special one-night-only concert featuring special guest ...

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Video / DVD

Four Maynard Ferguson Videos

Four Maynard Ferguson Videos

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

What would the holidays be without brass. Here are a bunch of recently posted YouTube clips of Maynard Ferguson in action, including Christmas for Moderns, an Ed Sullivan Show performance in 1960 and a full album uninterrupted by ads [photo above of Maynard Ferguson and Rufus Jones on drums]: Here's the famed 1960 Maynard Ferguson Big Band on The Ed Sullivan Show in August 1960 playing Don Sebesky's composition and arrangement of Humbug, with Ferguson playing multiple instruments, Chet Ferretti ...

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Recording

Ramsey Lewis Celebrates The Music Of The Fab Four With Posthumous CD 'The Beatles Songbook,' His First Solo Piano Recording, Due Jan. 6

Ramsey Lewis Celebrates The Music Of The Fab Four With Posthumous CD 'The Beatles Songbook,' His First Solo Piano Recording, Due Jan. 6

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

The late, legendary pianist Ramsey Lewis offers an intimate, familiar affair with his solo piano recording The Beatles Songbook: The Saturday Salon Series, Volume One, to be released January 6 on Steele Records. This selection of tunes by the iconic songwriting duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, approved for release by Lewis, is also a surprising DIY project, created during livestreamed sessions in Lewis’s own jny: Chicago home. Lewis, of course, is no stranger to covering of postwar pop ...

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Recording

Hampton Hawes: 'Four!'

Hampton Hawes: 'Four!'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

By the late 1950s in Los Angeles, golf had become as vital to a jazz musician's income as a working automobile. The sport was a social meeting ground, a place to get to know musicians off the bandstand. Several of the West Coast jazz musicians I've interviewed talked about the importance of the golf course in terms of work opportunities and camaraderie. This was especially true for black musicians, who were able to build friendships with white musicians who could ...

Video / DVD

Gerry Muligan: Four Videos

Gerry Muligan: Four Videos

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Yesterday, I had an afternoon visit with Gerry Mulligan. I began listening to his piano-less quartet in 1952, then his tentet in '53 followed by his groups with Bob Brookmeyer starting in 1954. The stuff still enchants with a fresh, clean, swinging sound. Which, of course, led me to YouTube. Here are four Mulligan clips, three of which went up recently: Here's Gerry Mulligan profiled on CBS Sunday Morning by pianist Billy Taylor in 1982... Here's a Mulligan masterclass in ...

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For Sale

Mack Avenue Music Group Presents: allONE – Four Days for Mack Avenue Artists

Mack Avenue Music Group Presents: allONE – Four Days for Mack Avenue Artists

Source: All About Jazz

The new reality that musical creatives are facing from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly unprecedented. In response, Mack Avenue Music Group is gearing up for what they hope will be their most robust and important web event to date – one that directly supports the artists who make the music we all love. Launching with International Jazz Day on Thursday, April 30 and extending through Sunday, May 3, Mack Avenue is launching the allONE initiative: a webstore ...

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Event

Robert Fripp’s Introduction To The Guitar Circle Four-Day-Long Event For Guitar Players And Music-Lovers To Be Held In Saratoga Springs, NY - October 22nd - 26th, 2020

Robert Fripp’s Introduction To The Guitar Circle Four-Day-Long Event For Guitar Players And Music-Lovers To Be Held In Saratoga Springs, NY - October 22nd - 26th, 2020

Source: Glass Onyon PR - William James

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GUITAR CIRCLE October 22-26th. 2020 If music is to enter our world, the role of the audience is as necessary as the role of the musician. So, for the first time in the life of Guitar Craft and the Guitar Circle, we are inviting audients to this Intro, to learn the techniques and approaches available to Crafty Guitarists. Music has its own intelligence, but can music change the world? If so, how? How does ...

Video / DVD

Four Lee Morgan Videos

Four Lee Morgan Videos

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Lee Morgan was a fluid burner. His trumpet could be fleshy and warm on ballads and sharp and darting on up-tempo songs. His staccato-like lines grabbed your attention, but he resisted making the instrument sizzle by pouring too much heat into his notes. His edge was an ingredient, not a means to and end. Here's Lee Morgan playing Bobby Timmons' Moanin’ on Canadian TV in July 1959... Here's Lee Morgan and Horace Silver in the early 1970s. Apologies for the ...

Gordon Goodwin's comments on the FOUR + Six Album

Nobody loves a big band sound more than me, that’s truth. But then again, the weight and volume of all those players, all that sound, can start to get a little bulky after a while. An ensemble like FOUR Plus Six strikes a perfect balance, allowing the music room to breathe and develop, while providing it with some essential structure. And in the hands of a composer/arranger like Mark Watkins, each track takes the listener on a journey that is both fresh and crisp but also satisfying and fulfilling.

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Woody Shaw
trumpet
John Coltrane
saxophone
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

FOUR + Six

Jazz Hang Records
2024

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