🎷 Jazz, Legacy & The Future | Mark Gross on Right Now with Rhenotha 🎙️

🎷 Jazz, Legacy & The Future with Mark Gross 🎙️

What does the future of jazz sound like?

In this episode of Right Now with Rhenotha, Rhenotha sits down with acclaimed saxophonist, educator, and cultural leader Mark Gross for a rich conversation about the evolution of jazz, the artists shaping the genre today, and why preserving its legacy matters now more than ever.

From the deep roots of jazz in Newark to mentorship, musical influences, jazz fusion, and the responsibility of passing the art form to the next generation, this conversation goes far beyond music—it’s about culture, storytelling, excellence, and impact.

Plus, Mark shares which artists he’d love to play with (dead or alive), reflects on some of the mentors who shaped his journey, and weighs in on the future of jazz.

Whether you’re a lifelong jazz lover or simply curious about the heartbeat behind the music, this episode is full of insight, inspiration, and great conversation.

🎧 Listen now and join the conversation.

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Hosted by Rhenotha Whitaker

Right Now with Rhenotha is an experience designed to inform, inspire, and entertain. Blending conversation, storytelling, and everyday moments, it captures the energy of what’s happening right now.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

It's it's vitally important for me to have them understand that there's a lot of shoulders and backs that you are standing on. And you need to know who they are, what they are, why they are. Add that to what your contribution can and should and shall be. But don't think that you're gonna get that and not know any reference to the historical past.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Good evening, everybody. I thank you for tuning in to right now with Renata. And tonight I'm so excited to have with me the one and only Mark the Gross saxophonist, let me see, auto sex, soprano sex. Okay, just a consummate musician that he is. He is the director of jazz instruction at New Judgment Performing Arts Center, world-renowned jazz musician. Mark the Gross. I don't want to give a virtual applause. Let me do a virtual applause.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Thank you, thank you. Thank you for you know, folks always say thank you for that great introduction. And uh I do, I really do. Thank you so much. Good to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Oh, you're so welcome. Well deserved. Well deserved. I'm just impressed and excited that you are upholding the standard of jazz in 2026.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Um, and uh in the way that you do. Um, and so let me just get on in your business, okay? Because that's what I do, right? Um, because jazz isn't just about music, it's just it's it's about history, it's about culture. Um, and you know, you know that language fluently, right? And of course, it started with gospel music. Yeah, right? It started with gospel music. You wanna how did that how did gospel music shape your ear?

SPEAKER_03 1:56

Yeah, well, I grew up in that. You know, I grew up in Baltimore, and my father um was the well, at the time when we were children, he was the deacon, he was all my my parents were always in the church. They always had us in the church. We grew up in a Pentecostal church. And later on, my father became the pastor of the church. Now I'm the youngest of seven. So that meant that we, and it was a small in Baltimore, it was a little small storefront church. So we were the band, we were the choir, we were the usher.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

I know it all too well.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

I know it all right, right. So when we got older, we would say, we would joke and say, when we get older, we ain't never going back to church, right? Can't keep us out of the church. That really kind of formed everything that I do, especially in music, because I think it gave me not only a sense of the connection of the spiritual connection beyond the theoretical things that are, of course, acquired, but understanding what the power of music, the vibration of music can do for people to people who were disparagingly just trying to get through day to day, but music was something that just uplifted them. So fast forward to where I am now, yeah. Just I'll give a brief brush of like I understand the importance of what my mission is at NJPack. And we can talk about that as we go on through the conversation. But that was the the foundation right there, um, through my parents.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Excellent. I mean, your story um is unique to you, but it's also um it's it's it's the story of a lot of black musicians um in RB, um, in in all genres of music. I mean, let's just call it stay the state.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can go as far back or as early back as people like, you know, you know, of course, most notably Whitney Houston and and so many great uh you know RB singers, um, to jazz musicians who equally, you know, like uh were influenced, if not growing up in it. Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, uh Thelonius Mo, all these, you know, amazing musicians that we know of in that genre have had some connection with gospel music that led them to ultimately doing what they did. And I don't think it was a separation of that. You know, when you talk about somebody like Duke Ellington, his music resonated through all of that, through the works he he wrote and conducted, to convincing the great Mahalia Jackson to do a record with him who said she would never do secular.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Never.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah. So, yeah, so so many stories of musicians that have kind of been touched by the music.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Right. Um, so gospel was your foundation.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Um, but but in the genre that you're in now, who were some of your earliest, your mentors, your earliest uh my earlier mentors, when I so again grow up in Baltimore, I went to the Baltimore Performing uh School for the Performing Arts. And I I would say my teachers, you know, again, um, I had teachers, but what was interesting, Renata, is that when I was younger, I thought it was gonna be a classical saxophonist.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Really?

SPEAKER_03 5:20

I was studying all of this French classical music. My teacher went to the Paris Conservatoire and he studied with some of the gurus of classical saxophone. So that's what I thought I was gonna do. I'm still in the jazz band, but it was my brother, my oldest brother, who plays guitar, who would bring us to some of the local older musicians in Baltimore to just kind of, you know, on Saturdays, we would go by there and they would open up the real book and teach us songs. And then my brother, youngest in age to meet Vincent, who plays trumpet. You know, I would be in my room practicing this classical stuff, and he'd be like, Man, you better check out some some Charlie Parker or some cannonball or some Johnson. Right. You know, my earlier influences probably, I mean, not even before I even got to jazz, gospel-wise, Bernard Johnson. He was a great gospel jazz saxophone saxophonist. Um, of course, Grover. I love to meet some Grover Washington Jr. And then, of course, the pillars, you know. I I'll call it my ABCs. Adderly, Bird, and Coltrane. Those three, you know, I started learning my ABCs. Um, my formative and still are uh inspirations.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

And I know you mentioned your um your dad, um, your brother. Um, was there and you and then your teacher. Um what were there others who saw something in you that you didn't see in yourself?

SPEAKER_03 6:47

Yeah, I mean, as as my career progressed, so going to Berkeley, again, I was I was deep. Yeah, I think those years, so many of my contemporaries who are on the scene now, um, we just we would just live, sleep, eat, and breathe music. You know, people like Delphine Marcellus, Javon Jackson, um Mark Whitfield, uh Antonio Hart, who we grew up as kids together and college. Nice. Roy Hargrove. So so many of us kind of came through the halls of Berkeley, and I think I learned as much from my peers as I did um my teachers, because those are the ones I was spending most of my time with. Um then, as we talked before we were recording, when I was in college, I did pledge one of the Divine Nine, uh, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. And even with talking with and learning from uh through the fraternal thing, the brothers there, of again the importance of black culture as it related to so many things in and outside of music, um, I poured that into my music and then finding out how many you know people that I admired were a part of the fraternity, you know, and I was like, oh, makes sense, you know. Um so yeah, it was it was so many mentors I had of my own contemporaries as well as older older states.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Cool, cool, and you play with already your bio. Just give me just just name drop. Good.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Yeah, I'm gonna name drop, not for the sake of name dropping, but I'm proud, you know. Jimmy James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, uh Dave Holland, uh uh Buster Williams, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, um and just every, you know, Freddie Hubbard, um, Nat Adderley, Jimmy Cobb.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

And it's not about it's not about name dropping, but it's also about you know letting people know that you know those were art were the greats um of this genre. And you know, for you to have had the privilege of working alongside them is just extraordinary.

SPEAKER_03 9:16

It was very extraordinary. And also, you know, one of the earlier bands I worked with was Lionel Hampton and the big band. And in that band, he would always have guests that would tour with us, people like you know, Sara Vaughn, or um, I remember once we were on tour at the Nice Jazz Festival, and you know, huge outdoor festival. The the the uh the dressing room tent that they set up for us was right next to the tent of James Brown.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Oh exactly.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

Yeah, so I took a buddy of mine, I was like, bro, we are going next door to this tent. We're gonna meet Mr. James Brown, and he was so cool about it. I, you know, of course, properly, you know, ask if I could meet Mr. Brown, his management said, absolutely, and he spent a good 30, 40 minutes just talking to us. And I thought that again, a part of being privy to a deeper insight of the history of music and the culture and the things that led to all you know, the package of who I am is a result of that kind of exposure and opportunity. So, again, like you say, it was not about name droppers, it's just that I was I came along during a really fortunate time, you know. I was in New York in the in the late 80s, so a lot of these cats were still around. Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, you know, Max Roach, uh Nina Simone. Uh-huh. So Abby Lincoln, like I got to see and get to know and spend a lot of quality time with a lot of these people. You know, two in the morning, I'm sitting at the dinner table with Elvin Jones, and his wife is fixing us food after a gig, and I'm asking him about John Coltrane.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Yeah, yeah. That's so cool. Um, you know, I don't want to, you know, um, so I'll say this. It is in 2026, musicians who are actually talented don't necessarily have that um exposure in 2026 to you know how you were exposed and how you um came up in music and had that kind of um mentorship and um tutelage, you know, being you know, under the tutelage of the of the greats, you know. I I don't want to bash, but you know, in 2026, the musicians who are trying to be musicians now, they got the internet, you know, and they and not really substantive um tutorship, you know? And speaking of tutorship, again, you are the the dean, big brother almighty. The director of jazz instruction at New Jersey Performing Art Center. And, you know, you now are the great um teaching young people um at New Jersey Performing Art Center. You want to talk about that?

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Yeah, so I've been a part of that program for for a couple of decades now, in fact. And I think like what we're saying, for me, it became it became important for me to do what was done for me. And that, you know, like we mentioned, all of these grades who I was around and had exposure to and time to spend time with and learn from. I now have to take that same um uh responsibility and teach this next generation. Absolutely. As we know and as we see, my generation was completely different. We would go and seek these cats out.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Whatever cost.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

It's not the case now. It's it's it's it's almost unfortunate, but the mindset is that, like you're saying, that they they're just gonna get as what whatever they could get from the internet or from their phone, and think that that is enough, not to bash any of the young talent now, but to think that's enough. And to think that what they're offering is is valid enough or equal to some of the the pillars that have come before them.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Right.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Like yeah, I try to and I should also note that the the young folk that I I have stewardship over at NJPack are teenagers. They're from 13 to 18 years old. So that it's it's vitally important for me to have them understand that there's a lot of shoulders and backs that you are standing on, and you need to know who they are, what they are, why they are, and and add that to what your contribution can and should and shall be. But don't think that you're gonna get that and not know any reference to the historical past.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Yeah, so at NJPAC, I I I I take pride in being able to be a mentor and give them the necessary tools to get to the next phase of where they're they're trying to get to.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

How are you finding young people? So the young people that come through NJPAC, um are they young people that says, Hey, you know, I want to be a jazz musician, or are they young or are they students who whose parents are saying, You're gonna do this? Like, is there a balance? Um, are they coming to it naturally?

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Like it's it's it's a balance. I think most of them are coming there because they have an interest in music or they they have some kind of background in music. But of course, there's the handful who are like, they really want it. So they're taking advantage of every opportunity. Um, being it, you know, one of the great things that we do at the program is that we have master classes where we bring in folk, you know, like Delphio Marcella. If he's in town, I'll bring him in to do a masterclass.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

And they just they don't even get it. They don't even get it, they don't even get like this design, like amazing.

SPEAKER_03 15:35

Yeah, and I and I try to tell them I'm like, this is the who's who of of of music, and not just uh as a practitioner, but these, you know, like again, take a guy like Del uh Delphi, who I went to school with, you know, I said he's equally respected as a producer as in as much as he is as a performer. So, you know, he's produced records for his all of his brothers, you know, Harry Conick Jr., Marcus Roberts. The list, it's just a long list of people. Major Leaf, Sony, Columbia Records, blah, blah, blah. Or bring in folks like Christian McBride, who do a masterclass talking about you know, his business uh trajectory of things, and also what he does as a performer. So, or bring in people from BMI and AskAp to talk about publishing and uh bring in people to talk about uh how to form websites and and marketing and branding, and you know, to give them a full scope of what it means to be a musician. So the program gives them that, and then like I said, there's a handful of them who are like you could tell that they really want it, and they're gonna be the ones that's gonna go to the next level with it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

There's a gentleman that I know um named David Hardy. Um he is from my church. Um I don't and his family, well, his um his uncle, who is my pastor, um, is also in Baltimore. Um and the name of his church is Shiloh Baptist Church of Edgemer. Um his cousin is Anthony Brown, um, the gospel music artist. Um, and you know, he went to school. Where did he go? He went to NYU. I think and he studied um music. Um and he is a performer, he is a jazz percussionist. Um so he's his forte is drums. Um, and when I tell you he is sticking to it, I'm so proud of him. He's like 33 now. Um I would love for you, you know, he it would be amazing.

SPEAKER_03 17:44

I bet he knows my nieces and nephews because my nieces and nephews, uh, one of my nephews is a drummer. He he plays with Chris Bodie and still lives in Baltimore. Um and I have nieces and nephews that are like I am in the jazz realm, they're the same over in the gospel space. But I bet he probably knows some of them. Yeah. But I would love to meet them.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah. I mention him because he is like really sticking with um the jazz and um making sure young people and um folks in his age range um are you know coming to the concerts. He's he's he's having concerts, he's doing, you know, the the brunches, and I'm just so proud of him. Um and he would definitely, you know, benefit from you know hearing from a so well like yourself. Um but he's he's he's awesome. Um so you know, given that um we have um like oh gosh, what's the the Samara Joys, right? We have the Samara Joys, we have the um gosh, what's the young now some before Samara Joy, um there was a young lady from uh Alexis Moraz.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Oh my vocal teacher in my program.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Okay, you know, but I tell you just butter, okay? And not even 30, okay? Future future of jazz. Yeah. So future of jazz musicianship. Do you see any more Alexis McPries, any more Samara Joy's coming up? You know, where do you see it going?

SPEAKER_03 19:35

I do. I mean, you know, Alexis was one of my students in the Jazz for Teens program years ago. Um, and you know, she came. Well, I think I'm privy to be able to see a lot of the ones, such as Samara, um, who compete in that Sarah Bond vocal jazz competition. And there are so many amazing young folk um that I see come through that. Some win, some don't, but they're equally amazing. Um but also like um one of the bands that I play in, it's uh the Lewis Armstrong uh museum big band. And a lot of those folks are connected with the the New York side of things with Lincoln Center, jazz at Lincoln Center. And you know, particularly the Juilliard School. Um there's uh an amazing plethora of talent that I see, uh both vocally and instrumentally. Um so I I think jazz is in a good space. Um I think the next generation of folk that are coming up and learning are like serious players, serious singers, serious musicians, even composers. Um you know, things like the essentially Ellington concert uh competition that all these amazing young artists that compete in the biggest big band competition. Um and and James Moody, which I will be uh adjudicating in a couple days, uh Linda Moody has this thing competition for um aspiring seniors in college or in high school that are going to college to offer them, you know, substantial scholarship. So um there's there's there's folks coming up at the pipeline. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Um so I'm sure you you know the movie Centers, right? Yeah. Um there was so much jazz influence in that movie. Um and but there was a lot of fusion uh with it. Um do you see it evolving more in in that space?

SPEAKER_03 21:44

I I think I I love that movie because I loved not only from the production side of who is it, Ryan Kugler? Ryan Kugler. That that particular barn scene that everybody talks about where it's like it's jazz, it's hip hop, it's classical. It's ballet, it's country, it's it's rap, it's like all things. I think to me that sort of epitomizes the scope of what can be and not to put things in a box.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Oh, say it, yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

No, it's like music is music, and it's like, you know, people like which I I respect and I love, like Kendrick Lamar, Robert Glasberg, and even like Stefan Harris, who uses things sort of quote unquote outside the box of just this straight-ahead jazz thing. Um, I think music should should sort of convey whatever that art wherever that artist is and the message of whatever that is, however, they need to use those things to convey their message, that's what it should be. And it shouldn't be relegated to having to be this one thing. I think that that's what in fact you you can look at uh interviews with Herbie Hancock and so many other again of our mentors, you know, and they'll even even what they've done years ago, but they'll even tell you how they don't they didn't, and they don't like how it was put in a box, you know. They never like the term jazz because you know it was like that puts it in a box.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

In a box, right. So um and then like with the revival of the movie Michael, right? Um with the revival of the movie the movie Michael, Michael's music now is like being streamed by 16-year-olds, you know? Um, and when you talk about putting music in a box, um, it's it's almost as if, you know, we throw something away. No, we don't throw anything away. We don't throw anything away because it's interwoven in everything, and in all cultures, in all um forms of um media, movies, um, yeah, plays.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

When you think about like like just for instance, the Michael, the artist Michael, and how he again, like how we're talking about the influence of so many things, you know, how he looked at Marcel Marseau and and and and Bob Fossey and Brown and just so many different people that added to what he ultimately became. You know, it wasn't just like this one of like influential lane that he kind of delved in. And I think that's why, even to this day, his music is not one, not only one still relevant, but still fresh and like we can enjoy it, you know. Yeah, a month, a year ago.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

And that's also um, you know, why you are so important, um, because teaching that to new generations um is what keeps us from being in one lane. It's what keeps music from being just, oh, it gotta be this way and not that way, you know? Yeah. Um, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. Um, so I have a game. Uh-huh. I love a game. Okay, I have a game.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

What about women? Well, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

We'll see. We'll see. Okay. All right. So um it's called Name That Legacy, okay? Um, and basically I'm gonna name a jazz legend or scenario, okay? Um, and you're gonna give one word, a quick thought, or a short story, okay?

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Okay. Ready? I'm ready. All right, name that legacy. Here we go. Uh-huh. Charlie Parker.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Oh. The ultimate uh uh example of of jazz. I mean, there's a there's a saying, I remember talking to Jimmy Heath. That was a story. And I said, Mr. Heath, what what would you say the difference was because he he got to hear and he knew Charlie Parker as well as he knew and grew up with John Coltrane. I said, What would you say is the difference between John Coltrane and Charlie Parker? He said, Well, and he called me my nickname remarkable. He said, Well, remarkable, every saxophone player in the world wanted to play like John Coltrane. Every musician wanted to play like Charlie Parker.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Okay, okay. Wonderful. Look at you, you just author. Okay, here we go. Perfect note versus perfect feeling.

SPEAKER_03 27:13

Oh wow, that's a good one. Is there a perfect note? I think I I don't I don't strive for a perfect note. Even an im uh uh a slightly out of an imperfected note, if it's got the right emote, the right spirit, yeah, I take that any day over uh A440.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Okay, yeah. Look, yeah, because we you know, nothing is perfect. Um but yeah, you wanna, you know, live in that moment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:56

Yeah. I go spirit of it and not the note. Um I'll miss the note. But if if I feel like the vibe is right, yeah, we're gonna go with that.

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Okay. All right. Here we go. I think it's my last one. A performance you'll never forget.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

A performance I'll never forget. Oh, wow, that's a that's a tough one. Because I've been, like I said, I've been around a lot of wonderful people. So can I give you two stories? Sure. Yes. So as the performer, I think one that I'll never forget was the first time I played with Nat Adderley Sr. Of course, my biggest inspiration is cannonball. So he had never long story short, I get the gig with him, and we're in Berlin at this club called the Quasimodo. He has never heard me play, really. We're at the sound check, we do like a five-minute sound check, and we still didn't go any songs. So now it's house full of people, we're on the gig, and he's he's calling songs, and every song he looks over to me and he's like, Do you know the song? And I'm like, Yes, sir. He's like, Do you know Cannonball's harmony part? I'm like, Yes, sir. Now, mind you, behind me, there's Jimmy Cobb on the drums, there's Walter Brooker on the bass, right? On sax on piano. So we go through four or five songs like this, and then he finally says to the audience, he says, Well, you'll notice I'm asking my saxophone player every time, does he know this song? It's because we're hearing him for the first time together. And he was like, Well, it's obvious he does not know, he does not need me to ask him this. He knows the song, so we'll play. And so for me, that was like, that was so beautiful, and that turned into three years of bliss. Wow. On the flip side of that, uh-huh, working with Lionel Hampton, we're doing, we would do a New Year's Eve gig every year at the Hyatt, the Grand Hyatt in New York City. And the opposite of us was Nina Simone. I'm sitting right right behind the bench watching a whole set of Nina Simone.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Wow. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

It was it was probably powerful.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

I'm sure it was. Yeah. I'm sure it was. Yeah. Young, gifted, and black.

SPEAKER_03 30:30

That's what I'm saying. It was like just hearing all those iconic songs and you know poor women, you know, they call me PJ. PJ. Oh. It was just her, just at the piano. No food. Just Nina Simone at the piano and singing. 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Do you so of course I have to talk about jazz in Newark. Yeah. Um Jazz in Newark, and you're a part of that legacy. Of course. Yeah. You want to talk to me about jazz in Newark?

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Well, Newark is, you know, it's kind of like for me, it's always been, as we know, historically an important part of fabric, particularly when you talk about this Northeast region. Everybody thinks New York. Absolutely, absolutely. But Newark also had a huge historical place in that uh evolution of it, you know, with the organ thing, organ clubs that was, you know, during the 50s and 60s to now. So what's happening now is I feel like there's this revitalization of art and culture in Newark, um, particularly being at NJPAX, seeing all of the new infrastructure that's going on now. They're building a new arts and education um center that's called the Cooperman Center, um, with what Wayne Winborn is doing over at Rutgers, Newark, um, at Clement's place, and of course the whole history about who Clement was, um, to what Stefan Harris is also doing there at Express Newark. Um I think Newark is now starting to capture the eye of, which is why again, coupled with what I'm trying to do with the the jazz program, it's capturing the eye of the nation now. You know, you got Lionsgate that's being built there. You got all these things. So I'm trying to get students prepared in a in a way where they can have opportunities in these spaces, not only just as a practitioner, but a composer, um, lighting design, backstage design, um uh being able to play for film and industry, things of that nature. So Newark is taking a strong, strong seat in the next phase of uh, I believe what's gonna happen in the next 10 years, particularly with these young folk that are learning now.

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Yeah. Where, you know, a lot of people always say, oh, like you said, New York, New York, New York. But a lot started in Newark. In Newark. Um, especially because Sarah Vaughn lived here. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

Um, you know, uh there's just so many wonderful musicians, past and present, who most of them live in in that immediate area of future, you know, Newark or South Orange or West Orange or somewhere, but you know, it's it's always been and it still is a vital part of thriving.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

I heard that um Amiri Baraka used to have salons at his house all the time, just like greats would show up. Were you around during it?

SPEAKER_03 33:56

No, I I was not. I was not. But what's what's cool about that? So every year with Inchipact, I uh we celebrate the the International Jazz Day. And last year, I was able to get the mayor to come and do spoken word with my students.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

That was yeah, so killer.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

So killer.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah, yeah. Because his, you know, his father, Mary Baraka, poet, laureate for the state of New Jersey, a world-renowned poet, you know, right here in New York, New Jersey, on Levin Street and on the number blocks. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 34:31

And that's the number blocks. You know, in in New York. So it's it's like all these thriving things are still going on um culturally.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Culturally. And and thanks to our mayor. Yeah, thanks to our mayor, Rachel Baraka, because he's an artist himself. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

My frat brother.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

That's right, that's right. Um, you know, so again, I will always say if you need a if you need a soloist. Listen, I just gotta like the legislative variety, okay? But okay, you know, but you know, I gotta get a little gospel for you.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

I gotta do good.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

You know that you know that's that's the problem. Yeah. Yes, yes. All right, thank you so much for being here. I got one more question for you. When when people hear you, when people hear your music years from now, what do you want them to feel?

SPEAKER_03 35:37

I want them to feel the honesty in my music. You know, we talked about the perfect note and all of that stuff. I don't think any of my music is perfect. I think it's it's it's honest in that, you know, every so particularly this next uh recording that I'm gonna put out in November. It's called the Gospel Accord Mark adjusted. So again, going back to my roots, right? It's gonna parallel the story of Christ from the baptism all the way through crucifixion resurrection. Amplified with the gospel choir, string orchestra, uh, I have poets on it, I have a rapper on it, I have a DJ on it, because the whole nine, right? So back to your question, I think when when when I when people listen to my music now and then years and decades past, I want them to feel that, you know, again, I was not trying to necessarily put my music in a one particular box, but the things that have influenced my life are the things that have kind of resonated through my music. And and I was not afraid to incorporate those things in my music. And again, it's just this is this is what it is. It's a pure, honest, here's opening up myself to you. Hopefully, it will resonate in a way that will make people feel a positive influence in helping make the world a better place.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Can't wait to hear it. Yeah, and Mark Gross, you are truly amazing. Thank you so much for being here. Okay, I'll style the idiot. My cheeks hurt. My cheeks hurt. Thank you for again gracing me with your presence for right now with Renata. Okay, all right. So, folks, you can um make sure you check out Mark's website, Mark Grow, Markgrossmusic.com, right? Yep, yep. Markgrossmusic.com and send your kids to him, please. Okay, already, yeah, because he studied from the greats, and now he is one of the greats, okay. Thank you, Mark.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Absolutely. My pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

All right, and thank you for tuning in to right now with Renata with me next week. Bye