Mark Egan

Mark Egan ranks among the foremost American bassists working in contemporary jazz. Frequently deployed as a lead voice, his electric fretless instrument produces an open, rounded, and highly songful tone. After co-founding the Pat Metheny Group in 1977 and remaining until 1981, he joined former PMG drummer Danny Gottlieb to launch Elements. The band’s self-titled first album surfaced in 1982. Egan’s initial outing as a leader, Mosaic, followed in 1985. Between 1988 and 1991 the quartet placed three commercially successful releases—Illumination, Liberal Arts, and Spirit River—on RCA’s Novus imprint, then disbanded after issuing Untold Stories in 1996. Freedom Town reached listeners in 2001; As We Speak arrived five years later. The all-star Truth Be Told appeared in 2010, while 2013 found Egan directing the power-trio project Unit 1. Dreaming Spirits, recorded with percussionist Arjun Bruggeman, added guitarist Shane Theriot in 2018. Two years afterward Egan and Gottlieb issued the duo album Electric Blue. In 2024 the bassist teamed with Theriot and Saturday Night Live drummer Shawn Pelton for the groove-jazz collaboration Cross Currents. Egan has also contributed extensively to film music, with his performances featured on the soundtracks or scores of nearly a dozen motion pictures such as Two Moon Junction, The Color of Money, and A Chorus Line.

Born in Brockton, Massachusetts, Egan took up trumpet and guitar at age ten under his father’s guidance. At fifteen he acquired a bass and incorporated it into his instrumental range. He continued formal trumpet study and performed in school ensembles and orchestras until graduation.

Enrolling at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music as a trumpet major, he pursued jazz studies before switching to bass midway through the curriculum. While in Miami he befriended and performed alongside Ira Sullivan, Pat Metheny, Danny Gottlieb, and Clifford Carter. His instructors included Jaco Pastorius, Dave Holland, and Andy LaVerne. During this period he assembled a group with fellow students Carter, Hiram Bullock, Billy Bowker, and Phyllis Hyman; the ensemble traveled to New York in 1976. Although the collective achieved limited success, its members advanced individually, and Egan secured touring work with the Pointer Sisters and Deodato.

In 1977 Egan appeared on David Matthews’s landmark fusion album Dune, Walter Bishop Jr.’s Soul Village, and David Sanborn’s Promise Me The Moon. He then joined former schoolmate Gottlieb, University of Miami keyboardist Lyle Mays, and Berklee College of Music alumnus Metheny in the Pat Metheny Group. The ensemble issued two commercially successful ECM studio recordings—the self-titled debut in 1978 and American Garage in 1979. That same year Egan also recorded with Jackie McLean, David Matthews, Steve Grossman, and Sonny Fortune.

After departing the Metheny band in 1981, Egan participated in sessions led by Gil Goldstein, Mark Murphy, and Michael Franks. In 1982 he and Gottlieb formed Elements and released an identically titled debut on Philo; the following year they issued the twelve-inch single “Starward” on Antilles. In 1984 Egan joined saxophonist Bill Evans for the Musician debut Living in the Crest of a Wave and appeared on both volumes of Gil Evans & Monday Night Orchestra’s Live at Sweet Basil. Most significantly, Elements delivered its Antilles debut Forward Motion, supported by Evans and Carter.

Following a brief tour Egan resumed session activity in 1985, notably contributing to Franks’s Skin Dive while issuing his own first solo album, Mosaic, on Hip Pocket Records through A&M. The date featured Carter, Gottlieb, Manolo Badrena, and Mitchel Forman. Additional appearances that year included Arcadia’s So Red the Rose, Lew Soloff’s Hanalei Bay, and Three Way Mirror by Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, and Joe Farrell.

In 1986 Egan recorded Upside Downside with guitarist Mike Stern. Elements—comprising Egan, Gottlieb, Evans, Carter, and guitarist Joe Cano—composed and performed the original score and soundtrack for director Stephen Hopkins’s Blown Away, starring Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones. The next year Egan played on Gottlieb’s leader debut Aquamarine, Sting’s Nothing Like the Sun, and saxophonist David Liebman’s Homage to John Coltrane. Elements signed with RCA’s Novus imprint in 1987 and released Illumination the following year, widely regarded as the group’s strongest and most commercially successful album. Veteran guitarists Steve Khan and Stan Samole alternated on several tracks; the single “Himalayas” charted simultaneously on smooth-jazz and new-age radio. Although the band toured, Egan maintained an active studio schedule, recording with artists ranging from Joe Beck and Tania Maria to Terumasa Hino and Sting.

Touch of Light, issued by GRP in 1988, featured Egan alongside Gil Goldstein and his Elements colleagues. Elements followed with Liberal Arts on Novus in 1989, again utilizing Goldstein and all three prior guitarists—Cano, Khan, and Samole—reaching the Top Ten on the smooth-jazz charts. Egan’s session commitments remained heavy; in 1989 alone he appeared on Gottlieb’s Whirlwind, Laurie Anderson’s Strange Angels, Airto’s Struck By Lightning, David Van Tieghem’s Strange Cargo, Toninho Horta’s Moonstone, and Rory Block’s Turning Point.

After numerous additional sessions and tours, Egan released his second solo album, Beyond Words, on Bluemoon in 1991. The core quartet of Egan, Evans, Gottlieb, and Carter was augmented by percussionists Badrena, Don Alias, and Gordon Gottlieb, plus guitarists Horta and Khan. In 1992 he toured both solo and with Elements while recording with Sophie B. Hawkins, Jim Hall, and Maureen McGovern. The following year he joined Airto’s all-star Gods of Jazz for the late-fusion classic Killer Bees. Elements, now a quartet with saxophonist Mann and keyboardist Goldstein, issued two live albums on Egan’s Wavetone label—Far East, Vol. 1 and Far East, Vol. 2. After the final Elements studio album, Untold Stories, in 1996, Egan returned to session work.

In 2000 Egan recorded Without a Doubt as an equal member of a quartet alongside flutist Frank Wess, guitarist Frank Vignola, and drummer Joe Ascione. He issued Freedom Town on Wavetone in 2002; the all-star ensemble included his Elements bandmates, trumpeter Soloff, and acoustic guitarist Jeff Ciampa. The intensely lyrical and atmospheric set charted in contemporary jazz. In 2003 Egan and Gottlieb joined pianist Jeff Laibson for the trio recording Thelonious Bach’s Lunch. Over the ensuing years he continued extensive stage and studio activity. In 2006 he returned with As We Speak, a lyrical blowing session of original material featuring Gottlieb and guitarist John Abercrombie. Another leader date did not appear until 2010’s charting Truth Be Told, again with Forman, Evans, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta.

After contributing to Michael Franks’s Time Together in 2011, Egan toured with the singer and subsequently traveled to Europe to record Magic Brewery with the Wolfgang Lackerschmid Connection, led by the German vibraphonist and drummer Karl Latham. Later that year he assembled drummer Latham and guitarist John Hart for the power-trio session Unit 1 and also recorded Melody Magic in a trio with Vignola and Vinny Raniolo.

In 2014 Egan appeared on releases by Krishna Das and Latham while issuing About Now, a funky fusion date with Gottlieb and Forman. The same trio followed with Direction Home the next year. In 2016 Egan, Latham, and Vic Juris released Living Standards. He also toured with the Jane Getter Premonition and performed on their 2017 live album On Tour. In 2018 he joined veteran keyboardist-composer Adam Holzman—Getter’s spouse—on Truth Decay. Egan and drummer Arjun Bruggeman then released the intense world-fusion trio date Dreaming Spirits featuring guitarist Shane Theriot.

Following further touring and session work, Egan and Gottlieb issued Electric Blue in 2020, their first duo recording in decades and one of the most critically praised projects either artist has produced. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented touring in support. In 2021 Egan rejoined the Jane Getter Premonition for the studio album Anomalia, participated in Steve Cole’s studio ensemble for Smoke And Mirrors, and in 2023 joined the large studio collective that recorded Luiz Milian’s Brazilian Match. In March 2024 he released Cross Currents on Wavetone, a studio collaboration with Potent Trio—veteran Saturday Night Live drummer Shawn Pelton and veteran New Orleans guitarist Theriot (Neville Brothers, Dr. John, etc.).