Mark Winkler - Love Comes First

Café Pacific Records, 2025

Image courtesy of Thierry De Clemensat

With a career spanning over 40 years, Los Angeles-based singer, lyricist, and educator Mark Winkler has firmly established his status as the “Godfather” of the West Coast vocal jazz scene. Noted for his smooth, conversational lyricist’s voice, solid sense of swing, and hip phrasing, Winkler bridges the gap between the classic muscular vocalese tradition and contemporary vulnerability. As an artist, Winker is a dual threat; his emotive singing co-existing with his platinum-award-winning songwriting. Winkler has had over 250 of his compositions recorded by jazz and pop royalty, including Dianne Reeves, Liza Minnelli, and Steve Tyrell. He is also a respected theatrical writer—co-creating the long-running Off-Broadway revue Naked Boys Singing! and the jazz musical Play It Cool—and has shaped the next generation of musical talent by teaching lyric writing at UCLA Extension for nearly twenty years.

Winkler’s solo discography reflects his artistic evolution through a deep, multi-decade exploration of straight-ahead jazz standards and clever originals. His momentum has been noteworthy across his previous four albums, all released on his Café Pacific Records: the inventive David Benoit collaboration Old Friends (2021); the too-smart and infectious Late Bloomin’ Jazzman (2022); the sophisticated The Rules Don’t Apply (2024); and his deeply personal 22nd album, Hold On (2025), which focused on emotional healing alongside six stellar jazz pianists.

Winkler returns with his 23rd studio album, Love Comes First, released via his Cafe Pacific imprint. Serving as an intimate, story-driven continuation of his late-career renaissance, the 11-track collection blends autobiography, romance, and swing-era elegance. Backed by premium, long-time collaborators like guitarist Grant Geissman and pianist Greg Gordon Smith, Winkler moves past the grief of losing his late husband to construct a narrative dedicated to warmth, reflection, and the enduring power of love.

The recording begins with “Snappin’ on the 2 and 4,” a hip, finger-snapping original featuring a blues-infused guitar solo by Grant Geissman that serves as a witty homage to listeners who struggle to lock into a jazz groove¹. This sharp insider lingo gives way to the title track, “Love Comes First,” which shifts the mood into a gently swaying, Brazilian-flavored Latin groove where Winkler’s soft, conversational delivery is seasoned by an echoing trumpet and a humid acoustic guitar break. Winkler then leans into his signature West Coast wit on the autobiographical, mid-tempo original “Fame Adjacent,” balancing clear-eyed self-awareness with the lighthearted realities of a lifetime spent in the musical trenches.

The emotional core of the record deepens with a pair of beautifully tender tributes. A deeply moving high point arrives with “More Than You Know,” a Great American Songbook standard dedicated to Winkler’s late husband, Richard Del Belso; Winkler’s vulnerable phrasing turns the classic ballad into an intimate, healing message. Next, Winkler presents George Gershwin’s “Embraceable You.” Winkler reduces this song to a quiet masterclass in restraint, dedicating it to his mother, who was a former big band singer. A warm horn accompaniment accompanies it, creating the feeling of a private, late-night conversation.

The album’s second half showcases Winkler’s theatrical versatility and clever stylistic shifts. He throws a comedic curveball on “Why Are People So Stupid?” delivering a biting, up-to-date cultural critique of contemporary societal absurdities with an affectionate, jazz-hipster shrug. Winkler is downright brutal in his rhetorical assessment, drawing no small part from Les McCann’s brilliant “Compared to What:”

“Is it a low I.Q. or a high degree of lazy / ignorance, or just plain crazy / Makes people do the stupid things we do.”

The story-driven arc maintains its pocket-groove momentum on “Nobody Else But You,” emphasizing the emotional core of the lyrics through casual, mid-tempo swing. Winkler then introduces a vibrant, collaborative energy on “Everything But You,” a breezy, merry duet with fellow Los Angeles vocalist Tom Culver that features a bouncing rhythm arranged by pianist Josh Nelson.

The last tracks offer inventive, moody reinterpretations of legendary classics before coming to a close. On “Mona Lisa,” which the singer released earlier on an extended play, Winkler shows zero fear with taking on the Nat King Cole landmark, using a lower register and dramatic, half-spoken phrasing against a shadowy arrangement by Greg Gordon Smith to give the timeless melody a fresh, sand-blown tension. Greg Gordon Smith also provides a prominent, bass-driven arrangement for “Just In Time,” turning a typically frantic showtune into a cool, calculated jazz stroll. The album closes on a dreamy, open-ended note with “Do You Ever Wonder?” where crack arranging and Grant Geissman’s colorful improvisations let the song drift into a lingering, unresolved wisp—distilling the album’s themes of time passing and love enduring to their very essence.

The vibrant, live performance warmth of this recording is indebted to an elite ensemble of Southern California’s finest players, acting as a rotating powerhouse of accomplished musicians. Winkler spent two years hand-picking musicians song by song, intentionally matching the right players to the specific emotional context of the material. Guitarist and arranger Dori Amarilio anchors the production, while a diverse rotation of world-class pianists like Jon Mayer, Josh Nelson, Rique Pantoja, and Jamieson Trotter give each track a unique sonic fingerprint.

Guitarists Larry Koonse and Jay Leach trade exceptional licks alongside Geissman, backed by a robust rhythm section featuring the brilliant bass work of Gabe Davis, Nando Raio, Lyman Medeiros, and Kevin Axt. Drummers Mark Ferber, Chris Wabich, Kevin Winard, and Jimmy Branly drive the rhythm with effortless syncopation, while horn players Mike Stever on flugelhorn, Scott Mayo on flute, Nolan Shaheed on trumpet, and saxophonists Bob Sheppard and Ricky Woodard infuse the tracks with crisp, soulful, and late-night brass textures.

Love Comes First enters as the most evolved, deeply moving addition to Mark Winkler’s impressive discography, effortlessly balancing sophisticated musicality with profound personal vulnerability. By intertwining playful, hip-infused social commentary with tender, late-night tributes to his family and late husband, Winkler avoids the traps of standard jazz nostalgia and instead delivers a masterclass in narrative songwriting. His signature conversational phrasing remains perfectly locked into the pocket, bolstered by immaculate, genre-fluid arrangements from long-time collaborators who give the record its vibrant acoustic energy. It is a rare, life-affirming album that embraces the bittersweet complexities of aging and loss, transforming them into a brilliant celebration of resilience and romantic optimism.

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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)

• Hold On (Café Pacific Records, 2025)

1. “Couldn’t be happy in the city at night / You can’t see the stars from the neon light / Sidewalk’s dirty and the river’s worse / Underground trains all run in reverse / Nobody here can dance like me / Everybody clapping on the one and the three…” Jason Isbell, “The Last of My Kind.”