Mark combines all the attributes that I look for in a great jazz musician. For one, he has exceptional technical command of his instruments. Secondly, he is endlessly inventive and creative in the way he plays music. Third, he's able to put his own personal stamp on everything he plays. Very rarely do you encounter musicians who can succeed on all three of those levels.

It doesn't matter what kind of jazz you like. Want to swing like Lester Young? Ratchet up the rhythmic intensity with Birdlike bop? Dig soul-splitting clarity a la Stan Getz? Lewis is your man. He can step in and play in a cool jazz environment as good as the best of them.

I feel [that Mark] is one of the most lyrical and emotionally committed saxophonists of his generation.

– Ted Gioia, jazz critic, author The History of Jazz and How to Listen to Jazz

Mark Lewis is a well-traveled alto saxophonist and flutist who has created a vast and intensely stimulating body of music over the past five decades, and enlivened jazz scenes from Seattle and San Francisco to Rotterdam and Paris. Boasting a multifaceted career stretching back to the mid-1970s, Lewis has also thrived as a producer, engineer, educator, and entrepreneur.

Legally blind, the Puget Sound, Washington-based Lewis navigates the musical world largely via his ears and has a gift for composing challenging music that sounds both effortless and pleasingly familiar. Now based in Bremerton, where he returned to be close to his family, Lewis maintains a busy schedule touring, playing Northwest engagements and working in his studio. He continues to expand his astonishing book of compositions, which number more than 1,700. Only a fraction of his music has been documented on record, and Sunlight Shines In adds a significant new chapter, delivered by a simpatico new cadre of collaborators.

This show will feature Adam Shulman, Peter Barshay & Jeff Marrs.

Tickets at Mark Lewis CD Release Event