Bassist’s New Album Showcases Myriad Influences

By Ross Boissoneau

Mark Egan says his latest release, Cross Currents, encompasses influences from throughout his career. That’s saying a lot, as the bassist was a founding member and mainstay of the Pat Metheny group and spent years laying down the foundation for the Gil Evans Orchestra. Over the course of his career he’s played with everyone from the Pointer Sisters and Carly Simon to Stan Getz, Bryan Ferry, Michael Franks and countless others across the jazz, r&b, pop and rock spectrums.

“My early influences are from playing r&b, soul and rock before becoming indoctrinated into jazz in the Miami years,” says Egan. It was there that he took lessons from and became friends with Jaco Pastorius, which all led to his joining Metheny. He played on the first two Pat Metheny Group albums before he and fellow PMG alum Dan Gottlieb formed Elements with keyboardist Clifford Carter, which pursued some of the same sonic territory but with Bill Evans’s sax in lieu of guitar (though subsequent editions of the band did include six-string).

Now he’s joined forces with drummer Shawn Pelton (a 30-year veteran of the Saturday Night Live band, whose CV includes work with Bob Dylan, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Billy Joel, Pink, even Luciano Pavarotti) and guitarist Shane Theriot, the musical director for Daryl Hall’s “Live From Daryl’s House” show and band, who’s also recorded and/or performed with The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Boz Scaggs, Allen Toussaint, Rickie Lee Jones, Willie Nelson and Todd Rundgren.

So there’s a whole lot of experience in a whole lot of styles. How did Egan boil it all down into Cross Currents? A large part of the process was conceptualizing the compositions beforehand, writing and arranging them to suit the players, while allowing room for them to do overdubs. “Once I had decided on recording this trio format, I spent nine months of composing and arranging the compositions. Shane and Shawn also spent a lot of time conceptualizing and contributing songs,” he says. With just three days in the studio to record and orchestrate the compositions, he says that preproduction allowed them time to be creative in the studio and focus on the group interplay and soloing.

Egan never set out to be a bass player. He started developing an interest in it while in high school, but went to the University of Miami to study – trumpet. “But I used to jam with bass,” he says. As his infatuation with bass increased, he began drifting away from trumpet. “With trumpet, your embouchure goes away if you don’t play every day. Bass you can play all the time. I enjoy being part of the rhythm section.”

While he says he had a good sound on the trumpet, he’s never been interested in going back. Instead, he’s been able to be part of bands such as that of Gil Evans, where he could play with and listen to stellar players such as the late, great Lew Soloff. “We became dear friends too,” says Egan of the one-time Blood, Sweat and Tears lead trumpeter (that’s him on “Spinning Wheel” and “Lucretia McEvil”).

Before his decade and a half with Evans, he was a founding member of the Pat Metheny Group, alongside Metheny, keyboardist Lyle Mays, and drummer Gottlieb. He says that’s where he really began playing fretless bass. “It changed the group sound. I realized a lot of nuances with fretless – the vibrato was more fluid. I got an individual sound.”

Individual as in not sounding like Pastorius, who had accompanied Metheny on his debut, Bright Size Life, and had taught Egan while at the University of Miami. “I don’t sound like Jaco. I stayed away from that to come up with my own sound. As a trumpet player I had a good melodic sense. I love grooving,” he says, pointing to the sound and style of Pino Palladino as another sonic adventurer whose work he admires.

He was able to take those lessons to his longtime gig with Evans, where he was often paired with Gottlieb or Adam Nussbaum in the rhythm section. The band typically featured a number of horn players, synth players and percussionists, so Egan says the tunes typically involved stating the melody before extended solo sections. “We’d play the head, then open it up, with four or five soloists. With that many soloists, you have to use creativity to develop the soloists you’re supporting.” He says that might mean changing the time signature behind the solos or subtly changing the chords to keep things interesting for himself and the rest of the band, as well as the solo players and the audience.

Along the way he’s worked with a bevy of different players in numerous settings. He’s been a first-call studio player, playing on hundreds of albums. He’s Michael Franks’ bassist of choice, and he and Gottlieb released nine Elements albums. Cross Currents is his 14th release as a leader, several of which also include Gottlieb.

Stylistically it touches everything from a nod to N’Awlins second line on “Ponchartrain” and groove-centric Indian music on “Eastern Blue” to laid-back blues rock on “Roll With It.” The brief “Ode to Jaco” brings to mind the World’s Greatest Bassist with some signature Jacoisms.

Egan has used and played many different basses, guitars and strings. They include Pedulla basses, which he’s used since 1981; a 1964 Fender Jazz bass that he found at a flea market in Miami years ago (“It’s got an amazing sound; I’ve used it on so many sessions”); and a Ned Steinberger 5-string upright NS bass.

“I do play classical and steel string guitar,” he adds, including a Martin D28, a Heritage 535 and a Velazquez. “I enjoy playing classical,” he says. “It improves my bass.”

These days he’s settled into a variety of D’Addario strings, as follows:

• Basses, fretted and fretless: EXL170 .045-.125 (5-string) Nickel Wound
• Electric guitar: EXL110 .010-.046 Nickel Wound
• Acoustic guitar: XSAPB1152 .011-.052 Coated Phosphor Bronze
• Classical guitar: EJ45C Composite 3rd Normal Tension

Ross Boissoneau is a regular contributor to Something Else! Reviews, Northern Express and Local Spins. He’s written for the All Music Guide, Jazziz and Progression Magazines, and is a member of the Downbeat Critics Poll.