Everything I've ever heard, good or bad but to be specific:- Stephane Grappelli, Jimmy, Miles, Mussorgsky, Bach, Coltrane and Astor Piazzolla to name just a few
Mark Russell is a violinist, composer, and teacher. He began studying classical violin at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. He heard a Stephane Grappelli cassette tape (Yep he's that old!)and it changed his life Becoming interested in Jazz, Blues and Celtic music. He toured extensively around the world with Oz band "The Sundowners", and began to incorporate musical styles from India, China, and Indonesia into his compositions and improvisations. He performed in front 800,000 people with the band during a 3 month tour as opening act for Dire Straits in 1986. Meanwhile, his interest in Jazz and Blues continued to grow through direct contact with artists such as Stephane Grappelli and Brownie Macgee. In 1991 he moved to Paris, where he continued to explore diverse venues for violin performance in theaters and clubs. Moving to the United States in 1994, he formed the groups Paris Match, and Ekyo, recording cds with both. As a featured artist with Soul/R&B juggernaut "The Phat Cat Players" he performed at The House of Blues in New Orleans and Chicago, the Capitol Jazz festival in Washington D.C., and on The Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage. His recording of Ain't no Sunshine was an R&B hit achieving "Most Requested Song" status in several large markets and was included on the Atlantic records compilation Rare Requests alongside tracks by Freddie Hubbard and Shaka Khan In addition to live performance, Russell has become increasingly involved with studio work, performance art, and film music. He produced a cd of unaccompanied solo improvisations, and with Ekyo, Earth Music a cd of compositions and improvisations for violin, didgeridoo and percussion. He has twice been invited to perform at the Max-Planck-Institut in Bonn, Germany, and at the Centre International de Rencontres Mathématiques in Luminy, France. For these performances he conceived an ongoing project to express the process of mathematical discovery through music. He also appeared with mime theater group Odoroka in a special performance for the delegates of the U.N. International Conference for the Enviroment in Bonn, Germany. He recorded music for the Victor Nunez film Coastlines, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and composed and performed music for the short film Reflections produced by Danish artist Mikkel Urup. Mark has also been active with the Florida State Film School scoring numerous student films. He was recently honored to be asked to teach at Berklee School of Music's Summer Program.
Thanks Mark for joining our ministry of Blues. As you know, it's all about peace, love, understanding, and GROOVE. Looking forward to our upcoming shows together. Wishing you the very best in Blues and life! -Big Daddy
I so wish that I was coordinated enough to play like you. I tried piano but that kinda ended up as a disater lol. So i just stick to what I do best, writing!
Hey Mark. Thanks for letting me be your friend even though I'm not a musician :)
I wanted to add my kangaroo pic to this comment, but I think you disabled the feature I can use to do that. If you want to see it, you can go to my pics or to my friend Fiona's page. Not sure if it's worth that much effort, though.
