Mark Isham

Mark Isham has a dynamic and diverse musical career. He is critically acclaimed both
as a composer and a recording artist/instrumentalist.  Named one of the "top three
composers of the '80s" by the American Film Institute, Isham's feature films number
over 50 including A River Runs Through It, for which he earned an Academy Award
and Grammy Award nominations.  In 1994, Isham received a Golden Globe nomination
for his work on Nell starring Jodie Foster.  He has received seven Grammy nominations
including his Grammy Award for Mark Isham, and his latest album, Miles Remembered:
The Silent Way Project was chosen by the London Times as the Best Jazz Album of
1999.  He has recorded over 50 albums and is featured soloist on numerous projects.
In the last four years Isham has started writing for television, which has earned him four
Emmy nominations including an Emmy Award for the critically acclaimed project,
EZ Streets.  

          Born in New York, Isham began his musical career as a trumpet player, first in
classical music and then in jazz.  His mother is a violinist and his father taught music and
art; thus from an early age he studied classical piano, violin and trumpet.  After his family
moved to California, he played trumpet in the Oakland and San Francisco Symphonies
and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.  Isham went on to play in various jazz and rock
bands and in his early 20's he forged into electronic music, becoming a renowned
synthesizer programmer. Yet trumpet remained Isham's primary focus as he established
parallel careers as a classical trumpeter, jazz stylist, rock guest artist and solo
instrumentalist.

          In the '70s Isham recorded and/or toured with such diverse acts as the Sons of
Champlin, the Beach Boys, Ester Phillips, Charles Lloyd, Pharaoh Sanders and Van
Morrison.  He worked as a member of Art Lande's Rubisa Patrol, producing two of
Lande's solo albums.  He also worked with Terry Bozzio, Patrick O'Hearn and Peter
Maunu, forming the ground-breaking art rock band Group 87, writing and producing
two critically acclaimed albums, Group 87 and A Career In Dada Processing.
Throughout the '80s Isham was involved with many of these same musicians and
also found time to contribute trumpet parts to albums by artists such as Suzanne Vega,
XTC, Was (Not Was), David Sylvian and Tanita Tikaram.  Most recently, Mark is
featured on the albums of Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Bruce
Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Toots Thielemans and with Lyle Lovett on Isham's
soundtrack album for Robert Redford's Quiz Show.

          In 1983 Isham received critical recognition as a solo artist with the release of
his debut Vapor Drawings, the first electronic release on the Windham Hill label. 
He then went on to release two Grammy-nominated albums: Castalia (1988) for
Virgin Records, and Tibet (1989) for Windham Hill Records.  But most notable of
his accomplishments as a New Age artist is his Grammy Award-winning album,
Mark Isham. 

          Additionally, in the later 80's Isham began to compose music for classic
children's stories narrated by award-winning actors.  To date, he has scored six
children's recordings for the acclaimed Rabbit Ears series.  He received Grammy
nominations for three of these, The Emperor's New Clothes, narrated by Sir John
Gielgud, Thumbelina, narrated by Kelly McGillis and The Emperor and The
Nightingale, narrated by Glenn Close.

          Isham composed "Five Short Stories For Trumpet And Orchestra," his first
commissioned orchestral work, for the Saint Louis Symphony, and it premiered
November 1992 with Isham performing the solo trumpet role. Since then he has had
orchestral performances of his film scores and original compositions across the country.

          In the early '90s, Isham formed the Mark Isham Jazz Band to perform acoustic
jazz shows which were very well received in Southern California.  Performances with
this band led to Mark's jazz-fueled outing for Columbia Records, Blue Sun, which
"delivered gorgeous blue-mood sets of lush melodies, emotive instrumental interplay,
reflective improvisation and hushed, often melancholic musings."

          Mark's next album for Columbia was for director Alan Rudolph's 1997 project,
Afterglow.  The Afterglow music rose out of conceptual dialogue between Isham and
Rudolph, a team with a long track record that includes Isham's score for The Moderns,
which won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Score.  In thinking about music
for his latest film, Rudolph had been listening to Isham's Blue Sun and the music of
Charles Lloyd.  Isham, who had played with Lloyd as a synthesist in the '70s, put in a
call to the celebrated tenor saxophonist, who was happy to oblige.  Isham then called in
legendary drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Jeff Littleton, who have been playing with
Lloyd recently.  Serendipity stepped in, and two East Coast-based musicians–pianist
Geri Allen and vibist Gary Burton–happened to be in Los Angeles at the right time. 
Filling out the ensemble is violinist Sid Page, who has played on many Isham soundtracks.

          Not one to stay in any one genre, Isham has now returned to his electronic music
roots with the newest incarnation of his band. With sampled loops, dance rhythms,
electric guitar, bass and his distinctive trumpet he is looking to create his own eclectic
place in the music world.

          One of the busiest and most sought-after composers in Hollywood today, Isham
wrote and recorded six feature films in 1999.  It is his ability to move along a film,
musically following the story, keeping the audience aware of the innuendoes of the plot,
that keeps him in demand.  "A good film composer is able to duplicate the vision that the
producer and director are putting forth and then find his own voice within that vision,"
says Isham.  His musical versatility is well utilized; he composes in any style- often using
classical, jazz, and pop music throughout a single score, threading these elements together
into the story.  His film credits include October Sky, Kiss the Girls, Varsity Blues,
Blade, Fly Away Home, Nell, Timecop, Quiz Show, Short Cuts, Of Mice and Men,
The Moderns, Never Cry Wolf  and William Friedkin's upcoming Rules of Engagement.

          Whatever the creative outlet, Mark Isham continues to be one of the most
fascinating, prolific and provocative artists on the scene.

THE ROLLING STONES

"Voodoo Lounge"

Virgin Records (1994)

WILLIE NELSON

"Across The Borderline"

Columbia Records (1993)

TOOTS THIELEMANS

"Toots" Private Music (1992)

ROBBIE ROBERTSON

"Storyville" Geffen Records (1991)

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

"Human Touch"

Columbia Records (1992)

JONI MITCHELL

"Both Sides Now"

Reprise (2000)

"Taming The Tiger" 

Reprise (1998)

JULIA FORDHAM

"Falling Forward"

Virgin Records (1994)

VAN MORRISON

"Live At The Belfast Opera House" Mercury (1983)

"Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart" Warner Brothers (1983)

"Beautiful Vision"

Warner Brothers (1980)

"Common One"

Warner Brothers (1980)

"Into the Music"

Warner Brothers (1979)

HECTOR ZAZOU

"Lights in the Dark"  

Detour/Erato Disques (1998)

"Songs From The Cold Seas"

Sony Music(1994)

KYLE EASTWOOD

"From There to Here" 

Columbia Records (1998)

ADAM COHEN

"Adam Cohen" Columbia Records (1998)

TANITA TIKARAM

"Eleven Kinds of Loneliness"

WEA (1992)

"Everybody's Angel" WEA (1991)

"The Sweet Keeper" WEA (1990)

"Ancient Heart" WEA (1988)

HAROLD BUDD/HECTOR ZAZOU

"Glyph" MTM/Crammed Discs (1995)

DAVID TORN

"Clouds About Mercury" ECM (1987)

WAS (NOT WAS)

"What Up Dog?" Chrysalis (1988)

XTC

"Oranges And Lemons"

Geffen/Virgin (1989)

KENNY LOGGINS

"Conviction Of The Heart" (1992)

MARK EITZEL

"60 Watt Silver Lining"

Warner Brothers (1996)

DAVID SYLVIAN

"Secrets Of The Beehive"

Virgin (1987)

"Brilliant Trees" Virgin (1984)

PATRICK O'HEARN

"Indigo" Private Music (1991)

"Eldorado" Private Music (1989)

"River Gonna Rise"

Private Music (1988)

"Ancient Dream" Private Music (1988)

PAUL HASLINGER

"World Without Rules"

RGB Records (1996)

Tom Coster

"From the Street"  JVC (1996)