Reflections

Mark Colby has shown again that he is one of this country?s foremost tenor stylists, one whose voice deserves to be widely heard and appreciated.
-All About Jazz

Veteran saxophonist Mark Colby brings together some of Chicago's finest musicians for a dynamic set of originals and classic standards, including a guest performance with alto sax legend Phil Woods performing his composition, "Squires Parlor." Drummer Bob Rummage, bassist Eric Hochberg, pianists Jeremy Kahn and Ron Perillo, guitarist Mike Pinto, and fluegelhornist Bob Lark round out the band. Mark Colby has performed, recorded and toured with many legends of jazz over the last 40 years including Maynard Ferguson, Gerry Mulligan, Clark Terry, Charlie Haden, Jimmy Heath and countless others.

Production Info:

Produced by Mark Colby
Co-Producer Eric Hochberg
Recorded at The Sound Bank by Steve Weeder,
at Hinge by James Auwarter,
and at Studio Chicago by Tom Miller
Mixed at The Sound Bank by Steve Weeder
Mastered by Dan Stout, at Colossal Mastering
Photos by Al Junco, Erical Group Inc.
Cover design by John Bishop

Reviews of Reflections

All Music Guide (Adam Greenberg)
He's been playing for quite a while, largely as a sideman, but Mark Colby makes his Origin debut here, part of a series of Chicago musicians who the label quietly picked up bit by bit, all with excellent and individual sounds. On Reflections, Colby takes aim at a tribute to the various musical influences he began with, leaning heavily on the Great ...

Audiophile Audition (Jan P. Dennis)
****1/2 Why is it that some jazzmen never seem to get their due? Mark Colby strikes me as one of these. Possessor of a brightly burnished, round, full, warm tone on tenor, he perhaps sounds most like his mentor Stan Getz, but not in a slavish or overweening way. Indeed, over the years he has developed his own individualized approach and sound. ...

Chicago Reader (Peter Margasak)
Tenor saxophonist Mark Colby has been one of Chicago's best straight-ahead jazz players for at least two decades, and his fine new Reflections (Origin) is a nice reminder of that. He gigs only sporadically?he travels as a clinician for Selmer and teaches at DePaul University and Elmhurst College?but his chops and good taste haven't slipped a bit. O ...

Chicago Jazz Magazine (Paul Abella)
Mark Colby has come out with a new disc, Reflections, on Origin Records. Colby joins a long list of Chicago's top-notch musicians making the move to that label, and like most of Origin's other releases, this one is flat-out fantastic. I'm beginning to think that John and Chad, the masterminds of that label, have no idea how to put out a bad record. ...

JazzTimes (George Kanzler)
Stan Getz is tenor saxophonist Mark Colby's stylistic model, and on previous recordings his debt to Getz has been obvious. It's not a bad model - everyone doesn't have to sound like Coltrane - especially when you, like Colby, have a strong lyrical bent and can inhabit a ballad like Johnny Mandel's "Close Enough for Love" or Cole Porter's "So in Lo ...

The Davis Enterprise, April 2, 2009 (Ric Bang)
Tenor saxman Mark Colby has played, recorded and toured with many jazz legends during the past 40 years, including Maynard Ferguson, Gerry Mulligan, Clark Terry and Charlie Haden. Although Colby isn't well known outside the Chicago area, he's a "first call" musician when name artists come to town. And while Colby has recorded only two albums und ...

Jazziz (Ed Kopp)
It's become somewhat rare and refreshing to hear a talented mainstream saxophonist who's not a Coltrane disciple. Veteran Chicago tenor man Mark Colby takes his inspiration from Stan Getz and others from the Lester Young school. On Reflections, an elegant and wide-ranging studio recording, Colby tackles assorted standards and three fine original ...

All About Jazz (Jack Bowers)
Reflections, the eighth CD as leader or co-leader by one of the Chicago area's most undervalued treasures, tenor saxophonist Mark Colby, is a tribute, he writes, to "the things that shaped and moved me when I was just a kid," as well as to friends, family and artists who nourished his growth and served as a catalyst for his becoming a musician. The ...

Downbeat, June \'09 (Michael Jackson)
Any jazzman who sees fit to record "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" is clearly of a romantic persuasion. But this track, though a nice trio feature, is less arresting than Chicago tenor saxophonist Mark Colby's own "Reflections." The title track alludes to David Raksin's "Laura," and elsewhere there are sprinklings culled from jazzlore of yore. ...