Reprinted by permission of the New Jersey Jazz Society
Cannonball Adderley was alto saxophonist Mark Gross’ “biggest influence,” so when he was hired by Cannonball’s younger brother, trumpeter Nat Adderley, in 1995 (20 years after Cannonball’s death), it was “one of the highlights of my career. I came recommended to him,” Gross recalled, “but he had not heard me play. We flew to Europe, and I’m thinking we are going to rehearse. We get to the hotel, we have dinner, and he says, ‘See everybody tomorrow.’”
The other members of the quintet were drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Walter Booker, and pianist Rob Bargad. “The day of the gig,” Gross recalled, “we did a line check and then Nat said, ‘Let’s go eat.’ I thought, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ We get on the bandstand. He says, ‘We’re gonna play Unit 7. He looks over at me and asks, ‘You know it? You know Cannon’s part?’ He counts the tune off. Boom. ‘Next tune we’re gonna play is Del Sasser.’ He looks over at me and asks, ‘You know it?’ Then, we play I’ll Remember April. After about four songs, he says, ‘You probably noticed I keep asking my alto player about these songs. Obviously, he knows the music, so I ain’t gonna ask him no more.’ He didn’t realize the depth of how I studied Cannonball in college. I knew everything about Cannonball.” Gross stayed with Nat Adderley for 2 ½ years “until his passing in ’97.”
At 7 p.m. on February 6, Gross will appear with his own quartet as part of the Jazz in the Loft Sunday night series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center. He’ll undoubtedly be performing some tunes associated with Cannonball Adderley, but he’ll also be playing some selections from his last album, +Strings (MGQ: 2018) and will be previewing some music from his upcoming album, The Gospel According to Mark, also on MGQ, his own label. It will be released, he said, sometime in late spring or early summer.
+Strings featured Gross’ quintet supported by a string quartet of two violins, a viola, and a cello. It was a mix of standards such as Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” and Gross original compositions such as “Brenda Mae”, dedicated to his late sister, Brenda Mae McMillan. The new album, he said, “alludes to my upbringing.” Growing up in Baltimore, Gross was influenced by gospel music, exposed to it an early age by his father, who was pastor of the local church. The album, he said, “is not only gospel. It’s folk, R&B, soul. It’s going to have a choir, spoken word, a rapper -- kind of highlighting a lot of the influences I grew up listening to outside of jazz, but in a jazz vein. (Bassist) John Lee is the producer.” Gross’ quartet at SOPAC will include pianist Brandon McCune, bassist Ark Ovrutski, and drummer Corey Rawles.
Another musical inspiration in Gross’ life was the late tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath. The virtual Central Jersey Jazz Festival held in September 2020 was dedicated to Heath, who died in January 2020, and Gross closed the festival leading his quartet in a collection of Heath’s compositions. “Jimmy Heath,” he said, “has been a tremendous influence in my life. I played with him for well over a decade in the Jimmy Heath Big Band and sitting next to him in the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band. He was not only a mentor, but a great colleague and friend.”
In Heath’s autobiography, I Walked With Giants, written with Joseph McLaren (Temple University Press: 2010), Heath provided long lists of musicians in the first appendix. There was a brief description after each musician’s name, and after Mark Gross, it said, “Remarkable”. “He dealt me a ‘remarkable’. That,” said Gross, “was very sweet of him. I think about him all the time.” In a testimonial for Gross’ 2012 album, Blackside (Jazz Legacy Productions), Heath wrote, “This music is movin’ and groovin’ with historic elegance and euphoric relevance.”
Gross has played in the pit orchestra of several Broadway shows, but his Broadway highlight was playing in the band of After Midnight, the musical revue that featured a heavy dose of music by Duke Ellington and Harold Arlen, in addition to some other popular American composers. “That particular band,” Gross said, “was put together by Wynton Marsalis and Andy Farber. They were instrumental in hand selecting what that band should be. What an amazing band! We quickly got a bond together.”
Farber pointed out that, “When assembling the band, we wanted to select musicians who understood the 1930s era music and Ellington in particular. Mark Gross had played with the Ellington Orchestra, under Mercer Ellington and Barrie Lee Hall, and also with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. So, we knew he could play the material with conviction.”
When The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood reviewed After Midnight in November 2013, he wrote, “I mean no disrespect to the superabundance of talented performers in this jubilant show when I say that they are all playing second fiddle, if you will, to the main attraction. This would be the 16 musicians called the Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars, stacked in a bandstand at the back of the stage for much of the evening . . . it’s the authority of the musicians that makes ‘After Midnight’ a memorable night at the theater.” Among those in the band, in addition to Gross, were trombonist Art Baron, clarinetist Dan Block, and drummer Alvester Garnett.
A resident of Rivervale, NJ, Gross studied classical music at the Baltimore School for the Arts before earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Performance at Berklee College of Music.
For information or to order tickets to the Feb. 6th Jazz in the Loft concert, email boxoffice@SOPACnow.org or call (973) 313-2787. Tickets are also available for purchase online. Two additional Jazz in the Loft concerts are scheduled this season: trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, leading a quartet, March 6; and vocalist Roseanna Vitro, April 10.
Due to Covid-19, capacity has been reduced to 50 per cent, and all patrons are required to wear a mask and show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test.
Photo by Adriana Mateo
The New Jersey Jazz Society is a non-profit organization of business and professional people, musicians, teachers, students and listeners working together for the purpose of advancing jazz music. Their mission is to promote and preserve America’s original art form – jazz. The Society seeks to ensure continuity of the jazz art form through its commitment to nurture and champion local talent, along with showcasing outstanding national and international artists providing for the younger generation via arts education programs.
