BIO

Mark Boling BIO 

Mark Boling is a jazz guitarist, teacher, composer, and author.  As a veteran sideman with pianist Donald Brown, Boling played in Tennessee-based bands and recorded with Brown on three records for the French label Space Time Records. Boling performs frequently leading his own trio, featuring drummer Keith Brown and bassist Jon Hamar.  Boling has released four recordings as a leader (A Writer's Tomorrow, 2019, Trio Life, 2012; Tune Me, 2004; Evidence, 2000). He has performed at the San Jose Jazz Festival in California, at the Muroran Jazz Cruise in Japan, The Cairo Jazz Festival in Egypt, and on several tours Europe and East Asia.  He has performed and recorded with the ICX Jazz Band, the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and a number of acclaimed jazz musicians, including Gregory Tardy, Zim Ngqawana, and Donald Brown. He is the author of Creative Comping Concepts for Jazz Guitar (Mel Bay), The Jazz Theory Workbook (Advance Music), Elements of the Jazz Language software (CPP/Belwin), and Curriculum for Aural Training software. Boling has been a senior artist-in-residence at the Banff Center International Jazz Workshop, a visiting artist at the Brubeck Institute, and a teacher at Berklee College of Music’s summer guitar program. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music in Boston (1981) and a Masters in Music Theory from the University of Tennessee (1984). In 2020, Boling retired from his position as Associate Professor of Jazz Guitar and Coordinator of Jazz Studies at the University of Tennessee.

  

Discography (leader) 

• Mark Boling A Writer's Tomorrow (MaBO Music 2019) 

• Boling, Brown & Holloway Trio Life (MaBO Music 2012) 

• Mark Boling Tune Me (MaBO Music 2004) 

• Mark Boling Trio Evidence (MaBO Music 2000) 

  

Discography (sideman) 

• Tom Richeson Gift of Wind (2020)

• Steve Brown Threnody (2014) 

• Donald Brown Born to be Blue (www.spacetimerecords.com 2013) 

• Terry Vosbein and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra Fleet Street (Max Frank Music 2011) 

• The Knoxville Jazz Session Tenors & Satin (2010) 

• Rocky Wynder Edwin and Catherine (2009) 

• Terry Vosbein and the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra Progressive Jazz 2009 (Max Frank Music 2009) 

• Steve Brown Within (2009) 

• Donald Brown Fast Forward to the Past (www.spacetimerecords.com 2008) 

• Zim Ngqawana Zimology in Concert USA (Sheer sound 2008) Won South African Music Award for “Best Traditional Jazz Album.” 

• East Coast Standards Time: Impressions (Altru Music 2007) 

• Fabrizia Barresi Choice (Quantum Jazz Music 2005) 

• Joe Thompson New York Barrio (2001) 

• Donald Brown Enchante (Space/Time Records 2000) 

• Joe Thompson Little Foot (1999) 

• Nancy Brennan Strange Les Etoiles Mysteriouse (Cassell Tunes 1996) 

• Bill Scarlett Jazz from the University of Tennessee (1993) 

  

Selected Concerts and Tours

• Poland Tour (spring 2022)

• Cairo Jazz Festival (Cairo, Egypt fall 2021)

• Four China Tours (Beijing, Chengdu, Qingdao regions) 

• Muroran Jazz Festival (Muroran, Hokaido, Japan) 

• San Jose Jazz Festival (San Jose, CA) 

• Jazz Education Conference (Louisville, KY) 

• University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA) 

• Appalachian State U. (Boone, NC) 

• Washington & Lee U. (Lexington, VA) 

• Georgia State U. (Atlanta, GA) 

• International Association of Jazz Educators Conference (New Orleans) 

• Blowing Rock Jazz Society (Blowing Rock, NC) 

• Barking Legs Theater (Chattanooga, TN) 

(photo credit Jeff Westcott )

(photo credit Jeff Westcott)

Mark Boling TRIO (photo credit Lorrie Brown)

Mark Boling TRIO (photo credit Gary Heatherly)

Quotes and Awards

Usually due to the security of their work as university educators, musicians are quite satisfied helping to mold their own locally distinctive Jazz scenes as they teach future generations of Jazz musicians, rather than migrating to New York or Los Angeles. Who outside of Tennessee, for example, would expect an explorative Knoxville Jazz group to record an album that equals or surpasses in many respects those of major labels?”

Cadence Magazine

In 2008 Zim Ngqawana released a recording on the South African label Sheer Sound entitled Zimology in Concert (USA) featuring the UT jazz faculty ensemble (Mark Boling, Keith Brown and Rusty Holloway, Donald Brown and Ben Dockery). In May 2009 the album Zimology in Concert (USA) was selected as the winner in the “Best Traditional Jazz” category of the South African Music Awards (SAMA).”

South African Music Award for Best Traditional Jazz Album of 2008

Evidence, Boling, Brown & Holloway's first release as a trio, was featured on the syndicated Jazz South radio program in 2002 as an outstanding recording by a southern artist.” - Bill Anschell

— Jazz South Radio