West Coast vocalist/lyricist Mark Winkler is never at rest, creatively or didactically. He is a noted lyricist who has had his work recorded and performed by Dianne Reeves, Randy Crawford, Claire Martin, and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Since 1982, he has recorded 22 albums as a leader or co-leader, growing as a singer through his single-minded mission to study and continually improve his vocal craft.
Winkler continues his trajectory using his go-to producer, Barbara Brighton, his gentle guide through his last nine recordings, including the present Hold On. For this recording, Brighton and Winkler started a project collaborating with six noted pianists: John Beasley, Rich Eames, Tamir Hendelman, Eric Reed, Greg Gordon Smith, and Jamieson Trotter. Each of these musicians brings something different to the table, and the results speak for themselves.
The album comprises eleven selections: seven original compositions and four, sometimes surprising, “standards.” Each pianist arranges the songs that he plays. Greg Gordon Smith arranges and performs the lion’s share of the recording. Smith contributes on the opening “Hold On,” “My Future’s Just A Memory,” “Train In The Desert,” and “My Electric Car” (all for which he also composed the music), the smartly conceived “If I Were A Bell,” providing impressive reharmonization. These songs reveal Winkler expanding both his lyric composition and singing. The singer is seeking a more expansive sound, one with a slight edge.
Jamieson Trotter, a Winkler favorite, shares his wares on Dave Frishberg’s lyrics to the Johnny Hodges song “A Little Taste.” Urbane and approachable, the pianist and Winkler bring the song in with good humor and grace. The two men have great mid-century modern, samba fun on the co-composed “Cat Women On The Moon.”1 The song contains some of Winkler’s most inspired and carefree verse:
“Weightless, mateless, young, and dateless going for a stroll alone in the dunes
I get hit on, scratched and bit on; it’s like I’m catnip on the moon
In my space suit, looking damn cute, I got them purring’ to my tune
They’re passing all my quizzes; these girls are whizzes at love
I’m nearly crazy as a loon for these cat-women on the moon.”
The song features an astringent trumpet solo by Brian Swartz, biting phrases off like shots of Bacardi 151, then cooled by the graceful pianist Trotter playing the soda chaser.
The recording’s heart lies in a very un-Sinatra-like “It Was A Very Good Year,” arranged and performed by Trotter. Winkler disarms all the song’s rat pack defenses, making it a tome for the Everyman. Winkler's ever-evolving voice changes Billy Joel’s “Vienna,” arranged and performed by John Beasley, from a song of longing to one of realization. Hold On is a special recording by a singer who refuses to stop growing.
Selected Discography
Sweet Spot (Café Pacific Record, 2011)
The Laura Nyro Project (Café Pacific Records, 2013)
West Coast Cool (Summit Records, 2013)–with Cheryl Bentyne
Jazz & Other Four Letter Words" (Café Pacific Record, 2016)
The Company I Keep (Café Pacific Records, 2017)
Eastern Standard Time (Café Pacific Records, 2018)–with Cheryl Bentyne
Late Bloomin’ Jazzman (Café Pacific Records, 2019)
Old Friends (Café Pacific Records, 2021)–with David Benoit
Rules Don’t Apply (Café Pacific Records, 2023)
The Mona Lisa Sessions (Café Pacific Records, 2024)
Inspired by the film Cat-Women on the Moon (Astor Pictures, 1953).