| Jazz |
Composer and double bassist Mark Wade is an astonishingly surprising musician. By a twist of fate, we had not encountered this album before—at the time, we were in France, somewhat isolated from the world and with only a limited circle of collaborators. Much has changed since our arrival in the United States.
More than just a bassist, Mark Wade is, above all, a composer. His biography states: Modern jazz composer and bassist Mark Wade embraces the appreciation and co-creation of great music in all its forms. Like Keith Jarrett, Wynton Marsalis, and Esperanza Spalding, he refuses to be confined to a single genre. His fourth album showcases the full breadth of his musicality and inventive compositional style. Described as “a living work of modern art” by DownBeat magazine, the original pieces on True Stories (2022) draw inspiration from a vast array of influences, weaving themes from composers such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Igor Stravinsky into a unique expression of jazz that bridges past and present.
Indeed, these influences can be heard throughout the album, yet Mark Wade’s vision of his art is resolutely contemporary. While jazz history and a deep knowledge of classical music are embedded in his very being, he is by no means a mere imitator. Classical music, for him, serves as a means to craft sumptuous atmospheres that elevate his jazz compositions, while jazz itself provides the raw material from which he shapes his own artistic language. His is a jazz of passionate romanticism. As he sets the stage from track to track, the album truly reveals its essence with the third piece, The Soldier and The Fiddle, where composition and arrangement reach their full maturity, carrying the listener through to the end of this captivating journey.
Mark Wade’s expertise and musical philosophy have been shaped over time by remarkable encounters: Gary Bartz, James Spaulding, Eddie Palmieri, Conrad Herwig, Harry Whitaker, Stacey Kent, Peter Eldridge, Don Byron, and Jimmy Heath. He is also a member of the Pete McGuinness Jazz Orchestra. In the realm of classical music, he has performed with the Key West Symphony alongside Grammy Award winners Sharon Isbin and Robert McDuffie, as well as with the Orchestra of the S.E.M./Janáček Philharmonic (Czech Republic) at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, the Orchestra of the Bronx, the Bronx Opera, the DiCapo Opera, and the Light Opera of New York.
All of this rich and extensive experience finds its way into this album, which was released on March 11th in North America under Mark Wade Music and worldwide through AMP Music & Records (Norway). True Stories was selected as a 4-star Editor’s Pick for March 2022 by DownBeat magazine, with editor Ed Enright hailing it as “a living work of modern art.” The album was also named one of the best albums of 2022 by Something Else! Reviews and Way Out West (Japan).
And though we find ourselves writing about it three years later, we are adding this beautiful album to our list of Indispensables for 2025, hoping that it will bring renewed visibility to True Stories.
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, March 11th 2025
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