RETRO VIBE - AUTHENTIC STYLE

Mark sings his Saloon Songs - a set of jazz standards - with a soft baritone voice and a beautiful guitar. These numbers come in the main from what is known as the Great American Song Book: the classic works from Broadway and Hollywood in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, written by such luminaries as Cole Porter, Gershwin, Berlin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart and Johnny Mercer and performed by the great singers of the mid-20th century: Frank Sintra, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole; Judy Garland and Julie London. He also drops in lounge classics from the likes of Burt Bacharach and Antonio Carlos Jobim. His style is laid-back, ironic and self-deprecating. He often recounts anecdotes from his long career in the music business. He will usually deliver several of his own numbers; these can be jazz or rockabilly-based. He has an enormous repertoire of over 200 songs. He uses set-lists, but will often be inspired to play a number he’s just recalled, or a request.

TECHNIQUE

Mark doesn’t use loop-stations or pre-recorded backing; everything you hear is just fingers on a guitar and the voice in his throat. Through a classic ribbon microphone his baritone voice is warm and rich, with a subtle vibrato. His singing influences are Sinatra, Julie London, Ella, Elvis, Dean Martin and Johnnie Ray. Guitar-wise, he developed a chord-lead style many years ago which means he plays bass-parts, chords, riffs, licks and lead parts simultaneously.

He usually plays a 1956 Hofner Committee guitar or a 1957 Gretsch 6120 guitar.

IMAGE

Mark has always loved dressing up, and singing the songs of Sinatra and Tony Bennett and Sammy Davies Jr. means the black tux is surely obligatory. The midnight-blue forms the perfect foil to the blonde beauty and flame-red of his guitars. Mark is a mid-century product, and he looks it. But age just adds to the overall effect: late-night clubs in 1950s Las Vegas or LA; men in suits, women in gowns; cocktails and

GLAMOUR.

Velvet voice; a jazz guitar dripping chords…Mark Wilson's offer is RETRO JAZZ SOPHISTICATION and CLASS.