Capri Records and American Jazz Institute are very pleased with the album "Everything You Did" by bandleader and arranger Mark Masters

The Jazz influences that pervade the music of the rock ensemble Steely Dan  are a major component of the perennially popular band’s mystique. With the release of Everything You Did (Capri, July 16), the celebrate bandleader and arranger Mark Masters has made those influences explicit, bringing his own well-honed sense of harmony and jazz sensibility to the music of Steely Dan auteurs, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.

Fronting an all-star ensemble featuring tenor saxophonist Billy Harper, trumpeter Tim Hagans, baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, bassist Hamilton Price and drummer Peter Erskine, alongside such former collaborators as saxophonists Oliver Lake and Gary Foster, Masters refashions Steely Dan’s soulful rock sound through the language of jazz while highlighting the jazz elements already present in Dan classics such as “Bodhisattva”, “Josie” and “Aja”. “The premise of this recording”, says Masters “is to free Becker and Fagen’s music from its earthly confines, in some cases, of harmonic structure and allow the quartet of Harper, Hagans, Price and Erskine to create the magic that great improvisers birth”.

Becker and Fagen join an elite group of musical luminaries including Cliford Brown, Lee Konitz, Gary McFarland, Dewey Redman, Grachan Moncur III and George Gershwin who have inspired the transformative powers of Masters’ pen and his expert skills as a bandleader. Consistently, no matter the illustrious source. Masters’  distinctive voice always shines through. The music retains its original appeal, yet the tunes are imaginatively enhanced by improvisational interludes by the soloists, orchestral nuances from bassoon. English horn, vibes, and bass clarinet, and swinging charts for the jazz ensemble as a whole. Masters’ art lies is his uncanny ability to offset the rich sweep of a jazz orchestra with the spontaneous interaction of a small group.

Over the last 20 years, Mark Masters has released seven recordings on Capri Records of his arrangements of music by great composers, including a reworking of Gershwin’s classic, “Porgy and Bess”. His 2012 recording, Ellington Saxophone Encounters showcased compositions that featured the saxophone masters who graced the stage with the legendary Duke Ellington Band. All of his recordings have been met with wide critical appeal. Everything You Did is poised for similar acclaim.

“Mark and I have discussed the Steely Dan Project many times over the years as he has been contemplating doing it since he first began writing over 35 years ago”, says Thomas Burns, President of Capri Records. “I’m surprised we took this long to make it but Mark is a man of many ideas”. Burns and Masters spent almost three years planning the recording and raising the funds to make it a reality.

Steely Dan was always a forward-thinking rock band that included sophisticated jazz elements. Now, thanks to Mark Masters and Everything You Did, the music of Steely Dan truly is JAZZ.

Mark Masters is the President of American Jazz Institute (www.amjazzin.com) where they can find magnificent photos of the concerts, which have been mentioned, given by the orchestras led by Masters.

www.caprirecords.com

 

BRAITHWAITE & KATZ

Communications

                                                                                                 Contact: Ann Braithwaite
                                                                                                 (781) 259-9600
                                                                                                  ann@bkmusicpr.com