Mark Egan Announces New Trio Album, “Cross Currents”

Bass legend Mark Egan has formed Potent Trio with drummer Shawn Pelton and guitarist Shane Theriot. Moreover, the group has announced an album for this coming spring.

Cross Currents, which will be released on March 8th, features 11 songs that the bassist says capture all of his musical influences.

“In many ways, this is a new production sound for me,” Egan explains. “My early influences are from playing R&B, soul, and rock before becoming indoctrinated into jazz in the Miami years. This trio record explores those rootsy R&B funk-rock grooves coupled with my jazz and world sensibilities and utilizes the various fretted and fretless basses that I’ve worked with over the years. It’s a culmination of the many worlds of my experiences and is the reason that it’s titled Cross Currents.”

That wide swath of genres is heard on funky songs like “Homebrew,” ambient soundscapes like “Big Sky,” the second-line of “Ponchatrain,” and even an Indian Raga on “Eastern Blue.”

Egan also produced the album and worked with Pelton and Theriot to arrange the music. They captured the interplay of their trio and then added additional guitars, bass, and percussion to enhance some of the songs.

“Everyone had so many great ideas for orchestrating and arranging the material. The record has electric and acoustic guitar as well as bass and percussion overdubs. We wanted to make atmospheric pads to create a backdrop for us to improvise over,” Egan says. “Once I had decided on recording this trio format I spent nine months of composing and arranging the compositions. Shane and Shawn also spent a lot of time conceptualizing and contributing songs. We had three days to record and orchestrate the eleven compositions so the preproduction allowed us to have the time to be creative in the studio and focus on the group interplay and soloing.”

We’ll update you on Egan’s new Cross Currents album as more details become available.