Mark Kross

 

Semi-relevant quotations dept:


"His compositions are consistently intriguing...lots of sharp angles, funny notions, memorable moments: Paul Klee set to music...a straight-ahead exploration that is nonetheless a quantum leap from bebop." - Fred Bouchard, Boston Phoenix

"Mark Kross is a talented bop-based pianist from Boston who, although he does not sound like Thelonious Monk, seems to have inherited Sphere's sense of humor....his swinging piano proves he is certainly worthy of our attention." - Scott Yanow, The Jazz Review

"Mark Kross digs hard with a bright contemporary piano style with Monkish bop influences." - Ray Murphy, The Boston Globe

"Kross brings a pleasing textural diversity to the trio format. What we have here is a warm, uncommonly fine-tuned trio...Mark Kross is a deliberate pianist who doesn't flaunt his chops. He chooses his notes carefully with a keen ear for harmonic nuance." - Robert Gaspar, New England Jazz News

"Le piano, sous les doigts de Mark Kross, cet amoureux fou de Duke Ellington, à la fois languisantes et mélodieuses qui vous rendu des accents sonorités transportaient dans un univers de saloon bon enfant." S. E. LeSorgues, Le Provençal

"Jazz isn't dead...it just smells funny." Frank Zappa

"Sterling!" Herb Pomeroy

 

and a bit of bio...

Pianist, composer, educator, and bandleader Mark Kross recently moved to New York City after having been a vital part of the Boston jazz scene for well over thirty years.  Mark has studied with Jaki Byard, George Russell, Fred Hersch, Joanne Brackeen, and Ezra Laderman, and he holds a Master of Music degree in Afro-American Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from SUNY Binghamton. As an educator, Mark has worked with students of all ages, from middle school through adult, with instrumentalists and vocalists, with beginning and advanced students.  He was most recently the Head of the Music Department at the Middlesex School, an independent high school in Concord, MA. Mark has released five CD’s with his band, The Mark Kross Five-Piece Trio, which are available on iTunes and Rhapsody.  He and Louise Rogers are the co-founders of JazzWaHi, a resource for jazz education and performance in Northern Manhattan.