Mark London Sims
Electric bassist and composer Mark London Sims is an outstanding musician capable of bringing his style and finesse to nearly any genre of music. From jazz to reggae, from African to hip hop music; Sims¹ expertise covers the spectrum of the modern sound. He has lent his powerful tone and solid groove to such diverse artists as free jazz pioneer Don Cherry, reggae legend Joe Higgs, folk hero Ben Harper and hip hop queen Sonja Marie. Sims began playing professionally while studying music composition in the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His group, the Native Sun Trio was a first place winner at the Pacific Coast Jazz Festival. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, he enrolled in the Graduate program at California Institute of the Arts. There he not only studied jazz with James Newton and Charlie Haden, but also African music and dance with Kobla Ladzekpo. Sims graduated at the top of the class and received the highly coveted President¹s Award. Sims has toured and performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia at many huge festivals, including Renne (France), Festival of Lights (Taipei), Poifest (Hawaii), Street Scene (San Diego), Reggae on the River (CA), Reggae on the Rocks (CO) North Beach Jazz Festival (San Francisco), Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, Nemo Festival (Boston) and South by Southwest (Austin, Texas). He has worked with Stevie Wonder, L. Shankar, Eddie Kramer, Dave Wakeling, Albert Tootie¹ Heath, Lula Washington Dance Theatre, Ravi Coltrane, Bennie Maupin, David Torn, Badialy Cissoko to name a few. He has appeared on more than 40 records including two by the critically acclaimed group, Dark, of which he was a founding member. Dark is one of Billboard¹s 30 Classic Progressive Music Recordings. He is one of the busiest bassists in Los Angeles taking the stage with many international acts such as Calypso Rose, The Mighty Sparrow, the Nels Cline Trio, Baron, the Eels, Percy Sledge, the Untouchables and the Watts Prophets. Mark¹s music can be heard in Kauleen Smith¹s Sundance Award winning film, ³Drylongso² and Bruce Beatty¹s film ³Black.² He has conducted his ³Art of Sound Composition² workshop for high school students as part of the Artist/Mentor program at the UCLA/ Hammer Museum. Recently, he played his jazz-funk compositions as a guest artist at the University of Wisconsin, Platteville Jazz Festival. He is supporting our troops by entertaining them in Germany and Bosnia this year. Mark endorses Lakland Basses, Seymour Duncan Pickups and Polytone Amps |
Email : info@buyacdfromus.com
all material copyright MMI-MMVII buyacdfromus.com
PO Box 216 - Platteville, WI 53818
phone 608-732-7875 fax 608-348-3696