Mark Asche

I'm a professional keyboardist and composer of some 40 years. I currently play with the Cedar Avenue Big Band, the Good News Big Band, play solo piano, and do small group jazz and jam stuff.

I've written and played on hundreds of commercial music spots and jingles (I am/was the 'Asche' part of Asche and Spencer Music), composed choral anthems, jazz instrumentals and big band arrangements, taught college level jazz piano, played on forty-five or so discs, and logged around 6000 gigs. A lifetime as a gun for hire.

It has been a marvelous privilege for me to have recorded with Minnesota's finest: Brian Gallagher, Joel Sayles, The Senders, Keith Boyles, Dave Karr, Roger Hernandez, Lynwood Slim, Rob Stupka, Bill Paul, Mojo Buford, Hornheads, The Cedar Avenue Big Band, Dave Graff, Gordy Johnson, Gordy Knudtson, Merle Knudson, and Jeff King. I've recorded on the Artegra, Blue Loon, Cypress, and Lifescapes lables, among others. My thanks to these wonderful musicians for allowing me to tag along.

I've performed with Kenny Loggins, Buzzy Linhart, The Gene Krupa Orchestra, Bob Berg, Bob Mintzer, Johnny Adams, Paul Wertico, Byron Stripling, The JazzMN Big Band, John Lee Hooker, Michael Tait, Mojo Buford, Viola Wills, Alberta Adams, Marvin Rainwater, Lynwood Slim, Jimmy Brown, and Big Jay McNeely.

With the Senders, I've opened for James Brown, Dr. John, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Charles Brown, Koko Taylor, Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, James Cotton, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Irma Thomas, Ruth Brown, and Etta James (I know I'm forgetting a few).

Locally, I've worked frequently with Phil Hey, Pete Whitman, Gordy Johnson, Gordy Knudtson, Dave Karr, Bobby Peterson (RIP), Dave Brattain, Ed Berger, Mike Croy, Charmin Michelle, Jennifer Grimm, Debbie O'Keefe, Dave Graff, George Faber, Keith Boyles, Vickie Mountain, Shirley Witherspoon, Irv Willams, Dave Maslow, Alden Ikeda, Trevor Haining, Steve Pikal, Dave Schmalenburger, Dr. Kim Gast, Bob Scoggin, Dave Wynn, Dan Gaarder, Keely Lane, Wally Walstad, Dale Mendenhall, Dave "Cool Breeze" Brown (miss ya, Breeze), Greg Wollan, Norm Blagman, Leon Jenkins (I owe ya, man) and legions of others. At the end of the day, I love to play.

Favorite artists and influences:

Bobby Timmons, Sonny Clark, Horace Silver, Tommy Flanagan, Bud Powell, Red Garland, Hampton Hawes, Cannonball Adderley, Chet Baker, Oscar Peterson, Booker Little, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Charlie Parker, Grant Green, Pat Martino, Don Patterson, Larry Goldings, Shirley Scott, Milt Buckner, Bobby Jones, Cory Henry, Keith Jarrett, Joe Zawinul, Manfredo Fest, Jaco Pastorius, Brian Auger, Nancy Wilson, Jo Stafford, Doris Day, Eydie Gorme, Johnny Hartman, Bobby Peterson, T-Bone Walker, Memphis Slim, Otis Spann, Dr. John, Ray Charles, Duke Robillard, Warren Haynes, Jeff Healey, Chicago Mass Choir, Bam Crawford, Richard Smallwood, Fred Hammond, Booker T. & the MG's, Billy Preston, Roger Jean, Donny Hathaway, Edgar Winter, Gary Wright, Nicky Hopkins, Larry Knechtel, Geraint Watkins, Hank Williams, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, The Dillards, John Hartford, Bobbie Gentry, Albert Lee, Vince Gill, Randy Travis, Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives, Jim Lauderdale, Henry Purcell, JS Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Gabriel Faure, Maurice Durufle, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Mahler, Randall Thompson, Rolf Scheurer, Gerald Finzi, Glenn Gould, Alfred Newman, Hugo Friedhofer, Bernard Herrmann, Lalo Schifrin, Johnny Mandel, Manuel De Sica, Elmer Bernstein, Ennio Morricone, David Amram, Henry Mancini, Neal Hefti, Sammy Nestico, Jerry Goldsmith, David Raksin, David Shire, Quincy Jones, Fred Karlin, Badfinger, Green Day, The Saints, Phil Keaggy, Gene Vincent, Johnny Burnette, Chuck Berry, Duane Eddy, The Ventures, Dave Edmunds, John Fogerty, Dan Baird, Burt Bacharach, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Webb, Gino Vannelli, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, The Peddlers, The Sound Stylistics, Focus, Dusty Springfield, Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66, Carole King, Roberta Flack, The Youngbloods, The Eagles, Weird Al..... And I'm just gettin' started. Really.