Although
Mark sings with the big band, he is actually one of Australia's
most awarded composer/arrangers of music for Television,
Film and Advertising. He is the senior partner and musical
director of Song Zu Studios, the Asia Pacific region's leading
music and Sound Design company.
Mark
lives in Sydney, but also spends time working at Song Zu's
busy Singapore and New York studios.
His main instrument (apart from his voice) is guitar, although
he is also a classically trained flautist. Over the years
he has played guitar with everybody from Swing City to Miles
Davis (on the soundtrack album for the movie "Dingo").
In
1989/90, just prior to moving to Sydney, Mark had a band
with Adelaide's premier Jazz singer Catherine Lambert called
the Hephounds.
The Hephounds were one of Adelaide's busiest bands, (they
backed James Morrison on numerous occasions!!) and did national
tours with BB King, Kenny Burrell, and the Philip Morris
Superband. Most recently, Catherine played the redheaded
Jazz singer in the hit movie, "Lost In Translation".
These
days Mark has pretty much put the guitar back in it's case
and with musical director Paul Gray is busy putting together
a great repertoire of Jazz standards and originals.
And
the list of songs in his bag just keeps growing, with arrangements
for the small group and the big band in constant production
by the likes of top Sydney arrangers, Evan Lohning and Andrew
Robinson.
Mark
is also busy writing original songs in the big band style
for both Emma Pask and himself. Some of these will be showcased
on the next album which will go into production later in
the year.
