{"id":3631,"date":"2024-09-11T13:50:18","date_gmt":"2024-09-11T18:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/?p=3631"},"modified":"2025-10-08T12:21:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:21:02","slug":"bassists-new-album-showcases-myriad-influences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/articles\/bassists-new-album-showcases-myriad-influences\/","title":{"rendered":"Bassist\u2019s New Album Showcases Myriad Influences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ross Boissoneau<\/p>\n\n

Mark Egan says his latest release, Cross Currents, encompasses influences from throughout his career. That\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cMy early influences are from playing r&b, soul and rock before becoming indoctrinated into jazz in the Miami years,\u201d 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\u2019s sax in lieu of guitar (though subsequent editions of the band did include six-string).<\/p>\n\n

\"Mark

Mark Egan in studio<\/p><\/div>\n\n

Now he\u2019s 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\u2019s \u201cLive From Daryl\u2019s House\u201d show and band, who\u2019s also recorded and\/or performed with The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Boz Scaggs, Allen Toussaint, Rickie Lee Jones, Willie Nelson and Todd Rundgren.<\/p>\n\n

So there\u2019s 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. \u201cOnce 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,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n

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 \u2013 trumpet. \u201cBut I used to jam with bass,\u201d he says. As his infatuation with bass increased, he began drifting away from trumpet. \u201cWith trumpet, your embouchure goes away if you don\u2019t play every day. Bass you can play all the time. I enjoy being part of the rhythm section.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

While he says he had a good sound on the trumpet, he\u2019s never been interested in going back. Instead, he\u2019s 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. \u201cWe became dear friends too,\u201d says Egan of the one-time Blood, Sweat and Tears lead trumpeter (that\u2019s him on \u201cSpinning Wheel\u201d and \u201cLucretia McEvil\u201d).<\/p>\n\n

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\u2019s where he really began playing fretless bass. \u201cIt changed the group sound. I realized a lot of nuances with fretless \u2013 the vibrato was more fluid. I got an individual sound.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

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. \u201cI don\u2019t 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,\u201d he says, pointing to the sound and style of Pino Palladino as another sonic adventurer whose work he admires.<\/p>\n\n

\"Mark

Mark Egan<\/p><\/div>\n\n

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. \u201cWe\u2019d 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\u2019re supporting.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n

Along the way he\u2019s worked with a bevy of different players in numerous settings. He\u2019s been a first-call studio player, playing on hundreds of albums. He\u2019s Michael Franks\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n

Stylistically it touches everything from a nod to N\u2019Awlins second line on \u201cPonchartrain\u201d and groove-centric Indian music on \u201cEastern Blue\u201d to laid-back blues rock on \u201cRoll With It.\u201d The brief \u201cOde to Jaco\u201d brings to mind the World\u2019s Greatest Bassist with some signature Jacoisms.<\/p>\n\n

Egan has used and played many different basses, guitars and strings. They include Pedulla basses, which he\u2019s used since 1981; a 1964 Fender Jazz bass that he found at a flea market in Miami years ago (\u201cIt\u2019s got an amazing sound; I\u2019ve used it on so many sessions\u201d); and a Ned Steinberger 5-string upright NS bass. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI do play classical and steel string guitar,\u201d he adds, including a Martin D28, a Heritage 535 and a Velazquez. \u201cI enjoy playing classical,\u201d he says. \u201cIt improves my bass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

These days he\u2019s settled into a variety of D\u2019Addario strings, as follows:<\/p>\n