Mark Whitfield...

**jumpnblues** · 12-13-2024, 06:52 PM

Wow! I haven't had the opportunity to listen to Mark except his material from the '80s and '90s. I've recently rediscovered Mark and his more contemporary recordings. IMHO, he's an exceptional player. Cool personality too. I read a recent interview featuring Mark. Really all around cool guy.

I'm listening to Mark as I relax in front of the wood burning stove. Great player. Does anyone have any info regarding his gear? The only guitar I've seen him play was an archtop. Not sure of the brand.

**Sam Sherry** · 12-13-2024, 07:42 PM

The "Golden Brown & Delicious" Trio -- Mark Whitfield, Bob Hurst & Tain Watts -- was one of my biggest highlights at Newport this summer. Seeing Bob & Tain was a bucket-list event for me.

Anyway, Mark was playing his red D'Angelico.

GB&D snippet from January, 2024:

D'Angelico advertising vid from 2023:

**Alter** · 12-13-2024, 09:32 PM

Monster player and a favorite of mine! I think my fav albums of his are True Blue and 7th Ave Stroll. He also has smooth jazz cds out that are very hip.

**Walker** · 01-04-2025, 05:46 PM

I liked True Blue and 7th Ave. Stroll when they came out. Mark was the guitar player of the Marsalis/Young Lion generation. He can certainly play, but he has this tendency to break into these fast, machine gun like phrases that I don't find very musical.

**Harry_Barnes** · 01-06-2025, 10:04 PM

as far as I know Mark in the 90s used Gibson archtops with floating pickups, and he tends to prefer floating pickups. I think he uses D'Addario Chromes but research that certainly. Mark sometime in the 2010s started playing D'Angelicos, then his Marchione period, and now his own signature D'Angelico. I actually purchased a matte midnight Deluxe EXL D'Angelico because Mark was using one a great deal around 2018. I got a great price for it, but the guitar was a complete mess. It needed quite a bit of work. Now, it is one of my favs.

I recommend you look into Mark's first record - The Marksman, and one of his more recent - Grace. Awesome guitar player, but I prefer his early stuff - by far. Sometimes I find his tone is thin, sometimes I find he rests on the same 3 phrases too much, sometimes he blows my mind. I recommend you look into Fingerpainting which is an album with Mark, Nicholas Payton and Christian McBride playing Herbie Hancock tunes. No drummer or pianist means Mark has to do some serious comping and I think it is one of his best efforts.

This performance has its moments certainly. You can see those two main guitars in action and Mark doing his thing