Stratus Zach Brock & Phil Markowitz

• 1 Wonderment 07:46
• 2 Wayne 05:26
• 3 Backspace 04:52
• 4 Reasons 06:10
• 5 Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair 07:57
• 6 First Run 05:46
• 7 Stratus 06:35
• 8 Come Sunday 07:38
• 9 Return 04:12
• Total Runtime 56:22

Info for Stratus

It's not always fair even in the jazz world. If it were otherwise, violinist Zack Brock and pianist Phil Markowitz would be among well-known, internationally celebrated, great musicians. But if you listen to what people in the music scene say, there is fortunately a different picture. The two Americans enjoy an excellent reputation. Not the least, their numerous engagements and albums speak for this.

Most of these days, the name Zach Brock is associated with Snarky Puppy. He has been playing regularly with the versatile collective for years, and he can be heard on eight Snarky albums to date. Brock once belonged to the band of bass ace Stanley Clarke and later to a group of guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, among others. A series of his own albums documents his class and his wide stylistic horizon; "Dirty Mindz", his eleventh, was nominated for a Grammy.

Phil Markowitz is a generation older. His extensive credits include playing along master musicians like Michael Brecker, Al DiMeola, Joe Lovano and David Liebman. They cover a broad spectrum of jazz, from traditional to avant-garde, from his early connections to Chet Baker and Toots Thielemans to his decades-long collaboration with Bob Mintzer.

Several of his albums, which were recorded over the decades, are projects in co-leadership—including the first with Zach Brock, "Perpetuity" (2014). In addition to their musical connection, Markowitz and Brock also have other things in common. Both are experienced and internationally sought-after lecturers. This became the actual starting point for "Stratus", the brilliant album with a top-rate Finnish team: bassist Ville Herrala and drummer Jaska Lukkarinen.

"I'm incredibly happy that this album is finally being released!" Zach Brock stated enthusiastically. "In terms of its meaning, especially with regard to what I want to say musically, this is at the top of my list." At the same time, he emphasized the team character. "Our music might be intellectually and emotionally challenging, but the heart clearly set the tone for us four." Jaska Lukkarinen, who was in charge of the organizational details, corroborated this. "The connection between us was there immediately! Musically and humanly, everything was just right for this project." There was not too much preparation time. Lukkarinen: "It happened in an almost old-fashioned way: a rehearsal, a few concerts, and two days in the studio. Everything went surprisingly smoothly." The decisive factor was the shared certainty that everyone is open to all kinds of things, "that together we can push in all directions in which we are drawn."

A rich, genre-blurring project, Stratus is both intimate and expansive--an exploration of sound grounded in trust, nuance, and shared vision.

Zach Brock, violin
Phil Markowitz, piano
Ville Herrala, double bass
Jaska Lukkarinen, drums

Zach Brock
is a sought-after soloist, educator, and sideman, as well as a multi Grammy Award-winning member of the band Snarky Puppy. Born to a musical family in Lexington, KY, he began studying violin at the age of four and performing publicly by the age of six. Zach’s improvisational skills were honed in the rich Chicago jazz scene while studying classical violin at Northwestern University.

He released his debut album, Zach Brock & The Coffee Achievers, in 2003. Two years and two records later he was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall by trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. Zach joined the band of legendary bassist Stanley Clarke in 2007 and that same year he and his wife, filmmaker Erin Harper, relocated to Brooklyn. From 2010 to 2012 Zach led a chord-less trio of violin, bass and drums called The Magic Number and since 2012 he has released three albums on Criss Cross Jazz, as well as two co-led projects with renowned pianist Phil Markowitz. In 2017 Zach formed a new chord-less trio with Matt Ulery and Jon Deitemyer. Their collective 2019 album Wonderment has garnered rave reviews and inclusion in the “Best of 2019” lists by Downbeat and Jazziz Magazines.

Zach is most widely recognized through his twelve years of touring and recording with the genre-bending supergroup Snarky Puppy. He first recorded with them in 2008 on Bring Us The Bright and has appeared on five subsequent recordings that include the 2017 Grammy Award-winning album Culcha Vulcha, 2019’s Immigrance and the 2021 Grammy Award-winning Live At The Royal Albert Hall. A passionate educator, Zach has coached hundreds of musicians through the workshops of Jamey Aebersold and Mike Block, masterclasses at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and Carnegie Hall in New York, and as a five-year “Artist In Residence” at Temple University in Philadelphia. Zach remains a perennial coffee fanatic and skateboard enthusiast, and currently lives with his wife and daughters in the NYC area.

Phil Markowitz
is forty year veteran of the International Jazz scene and is dedicated to realizing the full potential of improvisational music within the jazz idiom. He performs original compositions, which range from hard-cutting chromaticism to the most lyrical post-romantic ballads. Inventive, virtuostic, and accessible, Markowitz presents a forward-looking vision for contemporary music. His recordings as leader include “Perputity” on Dottime Records, “Catalysis” on Sunnyside Records, "Taxi Ride" (which features an incredible reunion with his lifelong friend, Toots Thielemans), "In the Woods", "Sno Peas", with Eddie Gomez and Al Foster and "Restless Dreams" (with vibraphonist Joe Locke).

Mr. Markowitz leads his own trio, and a quartet and duo with violinist Zach Brock, and is the pianist in the all-star group "Saxophone Summit" (David Liebman, Joe Lovano and Greg Osby and Billy Hart). His credentials span a cornucopia of jazz; from the traditional to the avant-garde; from his early associations with Chet Baker and Toots Thielemans, through his multi decade affiliations with Bob Mintzer and David Liebman.

In 1979, he joined Chet Baker's band. That four-year association yielded such recordings as "Broken Wing", "Live at Nick's Place", "Two A Day", and "Live at Chateauvalion". Phil has also performed and/or recorded with Mel Lewis, Marion McPartland, Phil Woods, Ravi Coltrane, Michael Brecker, Lionel Hampton, Nick Brignola, Joe Chambers, Miroslav Vitous, and Joe Williams. Phil has a long association with Bob Mintzer and was the pianist on 15 big band and small group recordings including "In The Moment", "Live at MCG", the Grammy Award-winning "Homage to Count Basie", "Quality Time", "Latin in Manhattan", and "Big Band Trane".

Phil's notoriety as a composer came in the late 1970's when he was playing in a NYC club with legendary jazz harmonica player, Toots Thielemans As they were playing Phil's composition, "Sno' Peas", pianist Bill Evans walked in, loved the song, and asked Toots to bring it to their upcoming recording session. Evans' and Thielemans' subsequent recording of "Sno' Peas" on the classic Grammy-nominated album, "Affinity", put Markowitz on the map as a venerable jazz composer.

For the past 27 years Phil has been playing, touring, and recording with NEA saxophone master Dave Liebman. Phil has served as pianist, composer, and/or producer with the quintet on "New Vista", "Voyage", "Return of the Tenor", "Songs for My Daughter", "Miles Away", "Turn It Around”, and two duo albums, "But Beautiful" and "Manhattan Dialogues", which was recorded in Greenfield Hall at the Manhattan School of Music. The all-star group “Saxophone Summit” has released 4 recordings including "Gathering of the Spirits", “Seraphic Light”, “Visitation”, “Compassion- The Music of John Coltrane”, and tours regularly in the US and Europe.

Phil has been artist in residence in major conservatories and universities throughout the world including the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Stockholm Conservatory of Music, North Carolina School for the Arts, Oberlin Conservatory. His academic base is the Manhattan School of Music, where he is a professor in the graduate and doctoral divisions.

Phil has received endowments and multiple grants from The Howard Foundation, Chamber Music America-The Doris Duke Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and The New York Foundation for the Arts.

This album contains no booklet.