It’s been years since I posted on my page, and it is about time I explained. I basically have stopped playing except for practicing now and then and an occasional performance at a religion service at my synagogue. The reasons are complex, age for one, a marriage for another, my lack of desirable performance opportunities, but most important the futility of recording any more CD’s. I have recorded 19 CD’s as a flutist, received a number of signs of recognition including nominations by the Jazz Journalists Association and Best Latin Jazz Flutist and Latin Jazz albums on a number of websites. I received positive reviews on my albums and my work is known by a number of flutist that I think very highly of and many people in the jazz and Latin community that I respect.

That brings me to the last reason I have stopped playing. In recent years, I have come to realize that the level of jazz flute playing exhibited by a few new players is far beyond anything I could have accomplished at any point in my career. The combination of classical training and modern jazz education has finally created some real monsters, the most amazing is a Turkish flutist who calls himself SharpEye, his name (without the Turkish punctuation) is Sarpay Ozcagatay.  He hasn’t recorded beyond the album that I reviewed and although a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music he is now on the faculty there and has published a three-volume flute method full of etudes that I could never dream to master (although I may try before I pack up the flute completely).

All that said, among my 19 albums is everything I ever hoped to record. And to record more would be redundant. I have a body of work that this page testifies to. Pretty much everything I recorded is up on youtube or soundcloud so people who want more than the brief samples on the page can hear it all. I have boxes of CD’s in my closet that I would be happy to give to anyone who wants them. Just email me and we can figure out how to get them to you.

I hope my music has made a contribution to jazz and to the flute. And trying to make the best music I could has been a reward in itself. If you click on my blog icon on the top of the page you will get the whole story from start to finish. Thanks for your interest in my music.

Mark