Reviews
"Mark combines all the attributes that I look for in a great jazz musician. For one, he has exceptional technical command of his instruments. Secondly, he is endlessly inventive and creative in the way he plays music. Third, he's able to put his own personal stamp on everything he plays. Very rarely do you encounter musicians who can succeed on all three of those levels."
"It doesn't matter what kind of jazz you like. Want to swing like Lester Young? Ratchet up the rhythmic intensity with Birdlike bop? Dig soul-splitting clarity a la Stan Getz? Lewis is your man. He can step in and play in a cool jazz environment as good as the best of them."
"It's almost extraordinary the range of things he's capable of doing. You listen to the guys with the primo recording contracts on the very top labels, and in my opinion, they're not in Mark's league."
"I feel [that Mark] is one of the most lyrical and emotionally committed saxophonists of his generation."
- Ted Gioia, author "The History of Jazz"
"How refreshing to hear an altoist bearing the influences of such consummate lyricists as Paul Desmond and Lee Konitz. This is music whose "coolness" sears."
- JazzTimes Magazine
"A wonderful, gifted saxophonist and creative original, Lewis had been an important influence in the upsurge of local musicians attempting to find their own unique jazz voice."
- Times Colonist, Victoria, BC
"Lewis [plays] a smoky, romantic sax reminiscent of the laid back 'cool' jazz of the '50s, which stirred yearnings for a dimly lit dance floor."
- Earshot Jazz
"Mark Lewis has an elegant sound and gently builds a solo without being overly busy with notes. As an improviser, he is not only a great soloist, but also creatively uses the ideas he hears from the other musicians, which results in a call and response creative group sound. He is a master of the modern bop vocabulary, but is not humorless and cliché-bound as so many of his contemporaries are."
- De Telegraaf, Amsterdam (translation from Dutch)