Jazz guitarist Mark Elf will perform at Hope College on Monday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Wichers Auditorium of Nykerk Hall of Music.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Mark Elf has been on the jazz scene for more than 40 years. He was born in Queens, N.Y., in 1949 and started playing the guitar at the age of 11. He has played or recorded with jazz giants including Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath & the Heath Bros., Wynton Marsalis and Jon Hendricks. His first professional jazz performance occurred around 1971 as a sideman at the Club Barron in Harlem, New York with Gloria Coleman and Etta Jones.
After forming his own record company, Jen Bay Records, in 1995, he stunned the record industry with hit recordings on jazz radio stations. From 1996 to 2004, all 10 of his recordings had finished in the top 10 on National Jazz Radio, with nine of them going to #1 consecutively from 1997 to 2004.
From 1970 to the present, Elf has taught guitar and theory at independent studios, and colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. His clinics are recognized as some of the finest in the world, as attested to by Clark Terry who hired Elf to teach at several of his jazz camps in the 1980s and 1990s.
Presently Elf is touring with his trio performing at festivals, colleges and also clubs.
Nykerk Hall of Music is located in the central Hope campus at the former 127 E. 12th Street between College and Columbia avenues.