Northwest saxophone and flute virtuoso Mark Lewis performs at the Auburn Wine and Caviar Company on Saturday nights in November, each week with a different master musician from around the region.
Performances are 6-9 p.m. at the venue, 2402 A St. SE.
The featured guest musician schedule:
- Nov. 9: Josh Mason on piano
- Nov. 16: Chuck Easton on guitar
- Nov. 23: Bud Schultz on piano
About the musicians:
Lewis is master of the alto sax, baritone sax, flute and piano, author of more than 1,600 compositions, and has recorded and produced more than 20 albums on various labels.
Rotterdam, Holland was Lewis’ home base for many years. He toured and played in most of the better clubs throughout Europe, and taught jazz theory and improvised music classes in several music conservatories.
Lewis lived and performed for several years in San Francisco and Victoria, B.C., as well. Lewis’ CD “In The Spirit,” recorded at Music Annex in Menlo Park, Calif., made the Top 40 on Billboard Magazine’s Jazz Albums chart.
Lewis has performed and recorded with pianists Mark Levine, Overton Berry and Ted Gioia; drummers Candy Finch, Eddie Moore and Billy Higgins; bassist David Friesen; saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Art Foxall; trumpet player Randy Brecker; and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Lewis often subbed for Stan Getz and John Handy during his time in San Francisco.
Josh Mason has been performing as a jazz pianist in the Pacific Northwest for the
past 20 years. During that time he has opened or performed with the Yellow Jackets,
Diana Krall, Diane Shure, Joe Williams with Louie Belson, and many well-known local
Seattleites such as Greta Matassa, Hadley Caliman and Jay Thomas. You can hear a mixture of influences in his sound from greats such as Gene Harris, McCoy Tyner, Michael Brecker, Keith Jarrett, and the master of simplicity and space, Count Basie.
Chuck Easton, a multi-instrumentalist, performs with Mark on guitar. Chuck graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music and plays bass in the Pt. Townsend Orchestra and other groups. Chuck teaches guitar, flute, trombone, saxophone, bass, piano, and clarinet. For many years he has been on faculty for Centrum’s Jazz Port Townsend and the Elderhostel NW Big Band. He often joins local groups, playing a variety of instruments. Chuck is also a composer and was awarded a national endowment for the Arts grant for jazz composition.
Bud Schultz holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of Puget Sound and completed extensive graduate work in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington. Bud has played and recorded with such greats as Milt Hinton, Larry Bunker, and Martin Denny. He is the former accompanist for Patti Suzuki, and has accompanied such jazz notables as Mel Torme, Johnny Desmond, Dorothy Dandridge and Helen O’Connell.
====
For more information, call the Auburn Wine and Caviar Company at 253-887-8530.
