Mark Ledford

A shaved-head jack of many trades, veteran of many sessions, comfortable in genres all over the ballpark, Mark Ledford found the time to release his belated solo debut only in 1998 with a percolating update of Miles Davis for the acid-jazz generation, Miles 2 Go. As a trumpeter, Ledford follows the Miles muted line; his singing draws upon Jon Hendricks and Bobby McFerrin-style vocalese and scat, and Ledford also plays guitar and drums. Ledford was raised in Detroit, where he started on the violin but became known in his teen years as a Michael Jackson vocal imitator. He studied at the Berklee School of Music from 1978 to 1982, majoring in composition and arranging; among those in his classes were Branford Marsalis, Kevin Eubanks, and Jeff Watts. After graduating, Ledford took on a wide variety of musical jobs in Boston and New York — becoming music director for Stephanie Mills, holding down trumpet chairs in the bands of Jon Hendricks and the Broadway musical Sarafina!, producing jingles, and recording with Michael Brecker, Eliane Elias, Bill Evans, and Special EFX. From 1986 until the present, Ledford has played trumpet and other instruments off and on in the bands of Pat Metheny, and he recently began singing with McFerrin's a cappella vocal group Circle. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi